On Sep 23, 2008, at 6:42 PM, Rick Warner wrote:
Jim Fulton wrote:
On Sep 23, 2008, at 5:44 PM, Rick Warner wrote:
Jeff Younker wrote:
I have to say, as a developer, and a system administrator, I like
setuptools. It does
what I need. Could it be better? Sure. For what I use python
for on a day-to-day
basis it makes my life a thousand times better than it was before
setuptools. Nothing
ruins your day more than spending *hours* tracing down package
dependencies
just to get the *one* package you need to allow you to perform
some crucial task.
It's even worse when you have to do it on multiple architectures.
Perl's package location and installation system (CPAN) is one of
the primary facts
contributing to its success. Perl is a pig. It's a charming
pig that can do lots of tricks,
but a pig none the less. What makes it shine is CPAN. And here's
the catch: CPAN
isn't really any better than setuptools. It's got warts and nuts
all over the place, but
it works.
And CPAN has some HUGE advantages over setuptools: it is designed
as a repository, and it is replicated. Which means it is
dependable. Anyone who suffered through the multiple outages of
PyPI (which in not replicated) over the past year or so, or the
ongoing outages of the many repositories across the web to which
PyPI directs users/processes, can understand why this is important.
Actually, PyPI is replicated. See, for example, http://download.zope.org/simple/
.
It may be that some of the mirrors should be better advertised.
A half-hearted effort. at best,
Hardly, but there's always room for improvement.
after the problems last year. When I configure a CPAN client (once
per user) I create a list of replicas I want to search for any query
from a list of hundreds of replicas distributed around the world.
From then on the client automatically switches to one of my selected
replicas when one does not respond in a timely manner.
That's good. That would be nice to add to setuptools.
The minimal set of recent PyPI replicas are neither well advertised,
Yes
and are not automatically searched,
Setuptools and many tools built on it let you configure the index to
use. It's true that you can configure only one, but I've found that
to be sufficient for my needs, but I agree, being able to search many
would be nice.
so therefore ineffective.
Lots of people have found them to be very effective.
And that is a mere tip of the iceberg, since PyPI is just the index,
and the repositories are for the most part not replicated. CPAN
sites are both index and repository.
My mirror is just an index, yes. I've found PyPI's repository to be
reliable enough for my needs. I've had the most trouble when
distributions aren't stored in the PyPI repository.
People are building mirrors that mirror both index and repository/
Setuptools and PyPI are light years behind CPAN in regards to
creating a usable, reliable method of package deployment.
Behind, yes. Light years? I don't think so.
Jim
--
Jim Fulton
Zope Corporation
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