[Distutils] How to force installing setuptools instead of distribute ?

[David Cournapeau]

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 5:50 PM, Tarek Ziadé <ziade.tarek at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 9:12 AM, David Cournapeau <cournape at gmail.com> wrote:
> [..]
>> Hm, that's a bit different from my understanding,
>> but that's a bit
>> irresponsible of Ubuntu to provide distribute if it does not get at
>> least the bug fixes which go into setuptools.
>> Maybe there is a
>> miscommunication here, dunno. I thought the point of distribute was to
>> get bug fixes that setuptools maintainers did not take care of.
>
> It's precisely because Ubuntu is a good distribution that they decided
> to switch to distribute to get the most active project in it.
>
> If a bugfix didn't make it in Distribute, that's not an issue with Ubuntu
> but a regression in Distribute we need to fix.
>
> So as I told you many time, if you want to help, add an issue in the tracker,
> or help us fixing this bug by providing a patch :)
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>> Also, as a rule, I like to be in control of what I use as a programmer
>>>> if I wish so, and the whole business of distribute claiming to be
>>>> setuptools is really obnoxious.
>
> And the whole business of setuptools claiming to be distutils in some places
> is really obnoxious too. And the fact that setuptools didn't evolve
> for two years, and
> was locked for maintenance was really obnoxious too.
>
> It's not an ideal situation but it helped.
>
>
>> If distribute were called distribute, it would have enabled people who
>> want to use it to use it. But what's done is done :)
>
> Not at all, using the same namespace was the only way to fix the bugs we had.

This is obviously wrong: you could have kept the name distribute, and
people who wanted to use distribute would do import distribute instead
of import setuptools. Instead, everybody is forced against their will
to use distribute instead of setuptools.

The fact that setuptools started this awful trend is no justification
for perpetuating it.

David