[Python-Dev] Update to Python Documentation Website Request

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Mon Jul 27 04:18:25 CEST 2009


"Martin v. Löwis" writes:

 > > pythonpkgmgr is not so different to that. And the idea behind it is
 > > to bring consistancy in package management across the different 
 > > platforms.
 > 
 > At the cost of being inconsistent within a platform.

Indeed, and that seems to be one of the really big sticking points in
all efforts to improve Python's package management: the conflict
between user goals ("something that works for me without any effort[1] on
my part") and sysadmin goals ("something that works and plays nicely
with the rest of the system").

pythonpkgmgr seems entirely oblivious to the latter issue, and not
particularly compatible with the way package management works in *nix
OSS distros (including Linux distros, but also *BSD, MacPorts, and
Fink).  I think that will probably kill uptake on those platforms --
could be wrong, but caution is suggested.

BTW, I think Tarek's efforts strike a good balance between these
goals, and the whole PEP 376 process has demonstrated how difficult it
is to serve these two masters at the same time.

Footnotes: 
[1]  I'm a professional economist: in my lexicon, effort minimization
is a positive goal, not laziness.  Zero is just an extreme case.


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