Re: Debian Python developers, make your packaging concerns known (was: Current distutils-sig discussion on package management)

["Ondrej Certik" <ondrej@certik.cz>]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 11:08 PM, Ben Finney
<bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Ben Finney <ben@benfinney.id.au> writes:
>
>  > The Python distutils-sig group is currently discussing the topic of
>  > package management, how setuptools interacts with package managers,
>  > and what changes are desirable as a result.
>  >
>  >     <URL:http://mid.gmane.org/20080317000630.735823A40B0@sparrow.telecommunity.com>
>  >     [...]
>  >
>  > I urge anyone who's had problems getting Python setuptools and
>  > Debian package management working together, to join this discussion
>  > so that your issues can be considered in whatever changes ensue.
>
>  To reiterate: This discussion is happening *now*. If ever you have
>  looked at Python packaging (e.g. distutils or setuptools) and said
>  "no, *no*, NO!", then this is the time to get involved so that changes
>  can be made for the better.
>
>  I have no knowledge of *what* the problems are; I only know that there
>  are people in this group who persistently complain about how Python's
>  current packaging practices are broken with respect to Debian
>  packaging.
>
>     <URL:http://mid.gmane.org/ca471dc20803191423x7511364hf9df8b5edfd9c4b4@mail.gmail.com>
>     Message-ID: <ca471dc20803191423x7511364hf9df8b5edfd9c4b4@mail.gmail.com>
>     From: "Guido van Rossum" <guido@python.org>
>     Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:23:26 -0700
>
>     I'm back at Google and *really* busy for another week or so, so
>     I'll have to postpone the rest of this discussion for a while. If
>     other people want to chime in please do so; if this is just a
>     dialog between Phillip and me I might incorrectly assume that
>     nobody besides Phillip really cares.
>
>  Please, if you have suggestions for what Python packaging could do
>  better, and improve Debian packaging of Python packages, *now* is the
>  time to join that discussion over at the distutils-sig.

Thanks for letting us know. I also don't know what the particular problems are,
my only experience was with the initial packaging of
python-enthought-traits + mayavi2
where I was unable to force setuptools not to download
stuff from the net, so I simply asked upstream to provide me a simple script
to do the whole compilation+installation of all python files+modules. Then the
packaging was dead easy.

And Varun and Kmap then fixed it with the help of upstream, so now
even the build
script is not necessary anymore.

Ondrej