Ian Bicking wrote: > I think this is part of why I don't understand the system packager > perspective. Developers shouldn't use system packages, it just > doesn't make any sense to have that intermediation.
I can't see why you would think that. Of course it makes sense to have that intermediation, for packages which are not directly relevant to you. I am more than happy to use packages myself for almost everything but the things I am directly working on (and maybe the layer just below). > Users don't use Python modules, they use applications. What is an application ? I mean, people who use numpy/scipy, they use a module. People who are scons users, they use a software which is just one module + some scripts. The application / library difference is blurry in python. > Users only care that their applications work, that they can install > applications without unnecessary conflicts, that the applications > don't break based on unintentional environment changes (e.g., the > value of PYTHONPATH). Yes, of course. But this is obviously linked to deployment issues. Then, the argument is that when deploying things, multiple / concurrent modules is a headache. Api versioning and stability is not a linux packagers crazy idea > > Packagers seem to care a great deal about having applications share > libraries on the packaging level, but this is for their own > accounting, there's no reason for users to care (except for the > too-small-to-matter issue of disk space). Did you read carefully what was written by the packagers ? They almost never mention disk space (which does matter on some systems BTW; not everybody uses a desktop or a server). They mention security, they mention maintanability. Both those are made much more complicated when you enable multiple / concurrent versions. > Also, packagers seem to jump the gun on this library sharing, as > they are concerned about libraries when one (or often zero!) > applications depend on the library. Some widely used libraries seem > reasonable, but for every widely used library there are a dozen or > more niche libraries. Those niche libraries are not always packaged. If a library is used by only one package, it is quite likely that it is included in the package itself. cheers, David _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig