> I've changed the sdist command some time ago, so it uses the sdtilb > tarfile module, instead of the "tar" command, > meaning that we could switch to the tar format under windows by > default as well now, not requiring the "tar" program anymore > > But some people may prefer the zip format. > > What are your opinion on this ?
My preferences is for .zip (that is what I use for my packages), the main reason is that Windows users can always unpack a .zip file. Often that is not true for .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 files. This reference is ancient, but the argument is valid, IMO: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/some_notes_on_the_building_of_codezoo.php > ... > Where there were multiple versions available, we chose the most recent, > stable version and made that the default. Where there were multiple packages, > we chose the Zip format (which is widely available on any platform) and got > rid or tar.gz, tar.bz, .exe, and everything else we could. If there were many > parts of the component, we defaulted to the one file that gave the user the > most value in a single download. Other files, versions, and packages fell to > the bottom of the page -- available for the users that absolutely need it, > but far from distracting for the users that just want to get their work done. > Reducing choices makes the site more useful, not less. > ... The tradeoff is that .zip files are compressed as well. But I don't believe that difference in compression size between .zip/.tar.gz/.tar.bz2 is that big of a concern in *most* cases because most Python sdist's are small, are they not? Cheers, Trent -- Trent Mick tre...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
