[Distutils] Bundling Distribute

[Ben Finney]

Lennart Regebro <regebro at gmail.com> writes:

> 2009/11/6 P.J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com>:
> > Not for people using easy_install or its derivatives (like pip and
> > buildout).  easy_install-based tools work as easily with source as
> > binaries.

“binary package” != “setuptools egg”. At least, I didn't take the parent
of P.J.'s post to mean that.

> Right. And untaring and running setup.py install is not exactly a
> massive amount of work either. :)

Time spent installing is only part of the cost. Neither of thosr options
cooperate with the operating system's *own* package management. Which
causes much frustration and wasted time for the user when trying to
later interact with the installed package in some way (use another
package that depends on it, detect whether its installed, remove it
reliably, etc.).

That's when a “binary package”, built by an operating system vendor or
some other trusted third party, is much less effort over time; and many
users know this, and will opt for such packages by preference.

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Ben Finney