[Pythonmac-SIG] PackMan engine version 0.4

[Bob Ippolito]

On Feb 29, 2004, at 4:59 AM, has wrote:

> Jack Jansen wrote:
>
>> I've started on a new version of pimp, the engine underlying Package 
>> Manager. The main thing I want to fix is how the default database is 
>> located: currently the databases are for specific versions of the 
>> darwin kernel, i.e. OSX 10.3, 10.3.1 and 10.3.2 all get a different 
>> database. I'm going to put in a fallback scheme where it first tries 
>> a database for the specific OS version, if that fails it tries a more 
>> general one, etc. The other thing I want to fix is to differentiate 
>> between Apple-installed MacPython on Panther and user-installed 
>> MacPython on Panther (which will use the same database as MacPython 
>> on Jaguar).
>>
>> I'm not going to do a complete overhaul of pimp, but if there are 
>> low-level features you would like to see included: now is the time to 
>> ask for them and I'll see if I can include them.
>
> Dumb questions:
>
> What's the reasons for using PackMan over PyPi + distutils? 
> (Historical? Technical?)
>
> Given the size and success of PyPi, might it make more sense now to 
> throw in with that than maintain a separate, and comparatively little 
> supported, system?

Distutils doesn't directly support binary distribution, and thus 
requires yet another complex set of dependencies: properly configured 
compiler(s), and potentially C libraries.  Not to mention the fact that 
it doesn't support dependencies at all to begin with, even between 
Python things.  Also, anything distutils/PyPI based would probably be 
the burden of package authors/maintainers, not of platform gurus, so 
it's much less likely to actually work properly (at least on our 
platform).

I would also imagine that it was also done this way because Jack could 
sneak it by and nobody would try and bog him down with a massively 
cross-platform metadata heavy PEP-backed implementation.

-bob