[Python-Dev] Re: [Distutils] Questions about distutils strategy

[Guido van Rossum]

[Great analysis, Tim!]

> 4) The audience is Python end-users "in general", and the product is pure
> Python.  I think this is the most important one for Distutils to address,
> and compilation isn't a part of it.  So far, though, what Gordon is doing
> seems more appropriate than what Distutils has been up to.  I hope his work
> gets folded into this.

I'm not sure what stuff by which Gordon you're referring to.  I am
only familiar with his installer, which I thought is win32 only (but
I may be mistaken) and is an installer for a whole application, not
just a bunch of modules.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

But this reminds me of a different issue, which Jim Ahlstrom has been
hammering about before: there's a completely separate set of cases
where what you are distributing is a stand-alone application, and the
target consists of end users who are entirely uninterested in whether
it's written in Python, C or Elvish.  (And then there's still the
distinction between Win32, Unix or both.)  The current distutil dools
don't deal with this at all.  I think it should though, and I think
its framework is powerful enough to be able to add this, e.g. as a new
"appdist" command.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)