Re: Is virtualenv --setuptools still useful?

[Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org>]

On Nov 14, 2012, at 02:00 PM, Stefano Rivera wrote:

>Hi Barry (2012.11.13_01:04:59_+0200)
>> I am upgrading Ubuntu 13.04's python-virtualenv package to 1.8.2.  This
>> could provide a basis for upgrading the Debian version in Wheezy+1.
>
>As usual, I'd say: You're a member of DPMT, which is the primary
>maintainer of this package, so please feel free to commit everything you
>do to the package's repository. I'll happily upload it to experimental.

I'll definitely will update the svn repo, and thanks for offering to do the
upload.

>> What I'm very tempted to drop is the addition of the --setuptools option for
>> Python 2 (and the $VIRTUALENV_{USE_,}SETUPTOOLS envar).  As mentioned, this
>> would be ignored for Python 3, but also really, who uses setuptools anymore?
>> :)
>
>I've found it useful when debugging errors that OSX users in my company
>report to me. That said, I have an upstream git checkout on my machine,
>so it's not *that* much more effort to just use that instead.
>
>It'd be nice if we can get the upstream to make distribute the default.
>I see https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/issues/217 but it's fairly
>dead...
>
>So, I am affected by this, but don't mind too much if you do it.

I did speak to Carl Meyer briefly on IRC, although he is no longer actively
involved in virtualenv maintenance.  He said that he thought upstream might be
interested in a patch adding --setuptools switch and
$VIRTUALENV_{USE_,}SETUPTOOLS envar.  So it might be worth me putting together
that patch.

As for issue 217 and making distribute the default, I don't mind carrying a
Debian delta for that, but maybe I can refactor the code to make that easier
for us to set.  Then if upstream decides to make the switch, they can also do
so more easily.

I suppose it's worth me spending a *little* bit of time on.

Cheers,
-Barry