Re: Python Policy: Things to consider for Stretch
On Feb 16, 2016, at 11:05 AM, Paul Wise wrote:
>Side-note: does anyone know why Python puts packages in "dist-packages",
>"site-packages" etc directories instead of just "packages" directories?
I don't remember exactly why we called it 'site-packages', but I believe it
was an evolution from the earlier ni.py module, which was where dotted module
paths first showed up in Python.
According to the HISTORY file, site-packages showed up sometime between 1.5a3
and 1.5a4, which IIRC would have been around 2001, so after Pythonlabs split
from CNRI. If you want to read a blast from the past, here's Guido's original
essay on built-in package support added in Python 1.5, again derived from the
optional ni.py in earlier versions.
https://www.python.org/doc/essays/packages/
dist-packages was a later Debian compromise so as not to break from-source
builds installed in /usr/local with the default `make install` target. I
think that was probably around the time I joined Canonical but wasn't working
on the Foundations team yet. I do remember Doko and I talking about it, and
it seemed like 'dist-' was a good parallel to 'site-' (i.e. a place for the
distribution to put things).
Cheers,
-Barry
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