Martin v. Löwis wrote:
So, what is this field for?
See the PEP:
"Binary distributions containing a PKG-INFO file will use the
Supported-Platform field in their metadata to specify the OS and CPU for
which the binary distribution was compiled."
Seems very clear to me.
The question "what it it for?" needs a better answer than that. Who
looks at this field? What do they do with the data that it contains?
When creating a record, how do I know the correct value to put in this
field? Can I just make up anything, like "Supported-Platform: my new
laptop"?
Can we give it a useful definition?
Useful for what? To educate a human reader? I think it's useful as it
stands. To make it machine processable? That will be very difficult to
achieve.
Useful for me to understand why I should bother the fill in this field.
Useful for me to understand why it is in the specification in the first
place.
You imply that this field is not intended to be machine processable.
That means that:
- packaging tools will not look at it, because the tools don't know what
it means
- database searches of available packages will not look at it, because
the databases don't know what it means
In that case, it is as simple as adding "This field is intended only as
a hint to a human reader about the build environment. Because there is
no specification for the content of this field, it does not make sense
to do searches or comparisons on this field. When writing a new record,
put whatever descriptive text about the platform that you think might be
useful."
If that is a correct description, then that description should go in the
PEP.
Mark S.
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