[Distutils] distlib and wheel metadata

[Paul Moore]

On 23 February 2017 at 15:09, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> The difference is that:
>
> * tool = you typically want at least one copy per Python interpreter (like a
> library)
> * application = you typically only want one copy per system
>
> It may be clearer to make the former category "devtool", since it really is
> specific to tools that are coupled to the task of Python development.

Ah, OK. That's a good distinction, but I'd avoid linking it to "used
for developing Python code". I wouldn't call pyline something used for
developing Python code, although you'd want to install it to the
(possibly multiple) Python versions you want to use in your
one-liners. OTOH, I'd agree you want copies of Jupyter per
interpreter, although I'd call Jupyter an application, not a
development tool. There's a lot of people who would view Jupyter as an
application with a built in Python interpreter rather than the other
way around. And do you want to say that Jupyter cannot pin
dependencies because it's a "tool" rather than an "application"?

Maybe we should keep the package type neutral on this question, and
add a separate field to denote one per system vs one per interpreter?
But again, without proposed behaviour tied to the value, I'm inclined
not to care. (And not to add metadata that no-one will bother using).

Paul