[Distutils] Improving distutils vs redesigning it (was people want CPAN)

[P.J. Eby]

At 12:36 AM 11/12/2009 -0600, Robert Kern wrote:
>Sorry, I edited out the bit at the last minute where I explained 
>that it would be great to have a centralized option-managing object 
>such that any command can ask what options were set on any other 
>regardless of the dependencies between commands.

Actually, that such a thing is needed in the first place is evidence 
of one of the deepest design flaws in the distutils -- the fact that 
things which are fundamentally system or project-level configuration 
values are defined in terms of options to commands!

The distutils is a definite case of "superficial design flaws being 
so annoying as to keep most people from noticing the fundamental 
design flaws".  ;-)