[Twisted-Python] Twisted Plugins - Implementation Discussion

[Kevin Horn]

> I don't believe 'distribute' is ever making it into the standard library.
>  The thing going into python 3.3 is 'packaging', which, obviously, is a copy
> (hopefully unmodified) of 'distutils2', which has nothing in common with
> 'distribute' except for its author.
>
> 'distribute' is a fork of setuptools that is actively maintained.
>  'distutils2' is a replacement for distutils (as I understand it, a rewrite)
> that does a bunch of things differently.
>
> More info here: <https://bitbucket.org/tarek/distutils2/wiki/Home>.
>
>
This is essentially correct.  A little history for the interested (feel free
to skip it):

First there was setuptools.  Everyone used it, but the author wasn't so
great at keeping it maintained, since it was originally just something he
wrote for himself.  But since he used it a lot in his business, he didn't
want lots of other people making changes either, so it fell into disrepair.

Tarek came along and got busy. He (along with some other people) forked
setuptools and made distribute.  He fixed some bugs, and planned to
eventually clean things up and change the underlying API strangeness.  But
the further he got into it, the more he ran into problems with all the crazy
extensions setuptools/distribute made to distutils.  So he thought "Aha! I
can just clean up distutils and things will be so much easier!".

Well the joke was on him, cuz he discovered distutils was a complete
cluster****.  So he rewrote distutils with an eye on keeping things nice for
everyone.  Project managers, distro packagers, users installing software,
etc.  This is distutils2.  In Python 3.3 and up it will be called
"packaging".  Once people start using it, it will make a lot of the current
packaging headaches in the Python world go away.

But the one thing it does NOT do, that setuptools/distribute DID, is the
entry_points stuff, which according to Tarek should be in a separate package
anyway.



So long story short (too late), once distutils2/packaging drops, the idea
will be for everyone to eventually move to using it rather that distutils,
and using a setup.cfg rather than a setup.py.  Also setuptools/distribute
will hopefully go back to being a niche tool.  Also also the Python
community could use a plugin standard that could replace setuptools'
entry_points.

The end.

Kevin Horn
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