[Python-Dev] Proposing PEP 345 : Metadata for Python Software Packages 1.2

[Paul Moore]

2009/12/28 "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de>:
>
>> Does that mean we should add "or"?
>>
>>     Requires-Python: 2.5 or 2.6
>
> It would be redundant to have it, since you can also write
>
> Requires-Python: >=2.5, <2.7
>
>> Should we also use "and" instead of ","?
>>
>>     Requires-Python: >= 2.5 and < 2.6
>
> Perhaps. I think the Linux packaging formats uniformly use the comma.

(I'm picking a somewhat random message to reply to here - in general,
I agree with the sentiments expressed in Martin's mail).

It seems to me that there's too much of an attempt to invent "do what
I mean" semantics, which is complicating the whole issue here. Python
prefers "explicit is better than implicit" over the Perl "do what I
mean". I don't see why that should be any less the case here.

It seems to me that everything people might want to express can be
covered with the existing operators, plus comma meaning "and". Maybe
some people find "2.5, 2.6" more obvious than ">= 2.5, < 2.7" - but
satisfying them at the cost of introducing complexity and ambiguity
into the syntax seems to me to be a serious mistake.

Paul.