[Pythonmac-SIG] Mac Python and eggs...

[Christopher Barker]

Ronald Oussoren wrote:
> BTW2. This reminds me of the old PackageManager, Jack's plan about it  
> was to  provide a list of easy-to-install packages that are known to work on  
> OSX. Much can, and has, been said about the actual implementation, but the idea  
> is a good one.

Exactly. The problem with it was the same as with many other efforts to 
do this kind of thing for python: the effort was put into building the 
infrastructure, rather than building the packages. We need to make it as 
easy as possible to build the packages themselves, and and easy way for 
them to contribute them to somewhere people can find them.

Really, downloading a mpkg from pythonmac.org and double clicking on it 
really is easy enough. All we need is an easy way to populate it.

In addition, Jack had defined the idea of a "scapegoat": for a 
PackageManager repository, someone was taking responsibility for those 
being good packages and not viruses or malware or anything. I don't 
think that's necessary. If we we want the collection to be complete, it 
needs to be easy to add stuff to it. Let's wait until there is a problem 
before solving that problem. That's not to say that we should let just 
anybody upload packages to pythonmac, but if there are a handful of 
people that can, and they accept contributions from everyone else, we 
could have a pretty complete selection fairly easily.

I do support the idea of using eggs. For me, the most compelling reason 
is the ability to install different versions. If Bob gets a chance to 
add egg support to bdist_mpkg, I think all we need to do is use that and 
put the resulting mpkgs on pythonmac.

-Chris



-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
                                     		
NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT         (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

Chris.Barker at noaa.gov