FYI: Work on easy_install replacement

[Bruce Frederiksen]

Hi Everybody,

I have been seeing very occasional references to some kind work on a replacement for easy_install (the setuptools package on PyPI).  I finally made an initial effort to investigate and thought I'd share what I found...

The replacements appear to be distribute (replacing setuptools) and pip (the executable replacing easy_install), along with several PEPs for changes to Python's distutils package.

This post to python-dev (Oct 8, 2009) provides a status update:

Distutils and Distribute roadmap (and some words on Virtualenv, Pip)

 I didn't spend too long on this, but it seems that:

1. distribute and pip will remain outside of the Python standard library (like setuptools/easy_install currently is).
2. the PEPs for updates to distutils are moving very slowly.

I guess there is at least some kind of push to get something into Python 2.7 and Python 3.2, but it's unclear how certain that is.

This came up for me because I've just finished 2 back-to-back Pyke releases that ended up being focused on migrating from subversion to mercurial and overhauling the release packaging and installation process for Pyke.  I decided to drop the dependency on setuptools and easy_install, and both the packaging and the installation got easier!  I'm not saying that setuptools and/or easy_install are bad things, just that this whole distribution process is quite complicated and "it's not soup yet"...

-Bruce

[Doug Harris]

James Bennett (Django's release manager and author of at least one
django book) wrote a couple lengthy blog posts on these in Dec. 2008.
These discuss more of the why rather than the "what's happening next"

On packaging (http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2008/dec/14/packaging/)
Why I like pip (http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2008/dec/15/pip/)

On Nov 5, 11:57 am, Bruce Frederiksen <dangy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Everybody,
>
> I have been seeing very occasional references to some kind work on a
> replacement for easy_install (the

> setuptools<http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools>package on PyPI).  I

> finally made an initial effort to investigate and
> thought I'd share what I found...
>
> The replacements appear to be

> distribute<http://pypi.python.org/pypi/distribute>(replacing
> setuptools) and
> pip <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip> (the executable replacing

> easy_install), along with several PEPs for changes to Python's distutils
> package.
>
> This post to python-dev (Oct 8, 2009) provides a status update:
>

> <http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/python-dev/3762461>
>
>
>
> > Distutils and Distribute roadmap (and some words on Virtualenv, Pip)<http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/python-dev/3762461>

>
>  I didn't spend too long on this, but it seems that:
>

>    1. distribute and pip will remain outside of the Python standard library
>    (like setuptools/easy_install currently is).
>    2. the PEPs for updates to distutils are moving very slowly.