On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 2:02 AM, P.J. Eby <[email protected]> wrote: > At 10:32 AM 11/28/2009 +1100, Ben Finney wrote: >> >> This is a red herring, AFAICT. It's been discussed already that workflow >> is orthogonal to version comparison semantics. That is, nothing about a >> workflow involving snapshots or dev versions etc. implies that exceptional >> version keywords need to be accommodated. Exactly the same workflow can take >> place by choosing different version strings that work with existing >> version-comparison semantics. Moreover, AIUI there is no injunction that all >> projects must follow exactly the semantics of PEP 386, right? So why not >> have a *simple* standard (all version string components compared >> alphanumerically) in PEP 386, that is known to work unmodified with existing >> package systems, without Python-specific translation layers for version >> comparison? > > For the simple reason that it involves asking one group of people to change > how they work -- with no immediate benefit -- so that another group can > avoid having to change how they work. > > Why should developers change, and packagers not? > > It's simply not an equitable request, which is why the proposal is > unrealistic.
That's completely wrong, the proposal is a benefit for all of us, because it standardizes something that is already being done. PEP 386 propose a scheme to be adopted by developers or tools, but if some people want to stick with their own internal version scheme for development versions or post/pre release versions, they can do it without any problem. And they don't have to follow any PEP 386 convention for their internal work. And when they release their projects, if they stick with MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO, it will work. But as soon as they publish development versions, or post or pre releases, they have two choice: - they use a standard that is described in PEP 386 - so their package is installable by installers that follow it - they provide documentation about their own internal standard Today, if they release their package with their own custom version scheme, setuptools will just install those package, and screw the ordering if it doesn't follow its heuristic version sorter. So PEP 386 is just about describing a standard for something that is already being done: installing versioned distributions in someone's computer. Tarek _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
