On 25 Oct, 2012, at 9:23, anatoly techtonik <techto...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 9:28 AM, Ronald Oussoren <ronaldousso...@mac.com> > wrote: >> >> On 22 Oct, 2012, at 20:03, anatoly techtonik <techto...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> What do you think about this? >>> >>> http://bugs.python.org/issue16299 >> >> The cost of changing the build directory is high, and has limited upsides at >> best. Some of the costs: confusing current users, breaking existing >> documentation like books, breaking build systems, incompatibility between >> python versions. > > There is already a lot of incompatibilities between 2 and 3, and even > between 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, so the added value of this change to the > total cost is miserable. Speaking about user confusion - if they won't > find 'build' directory - they'll surely notice __build__ in their > tree. Python 3 toolchains are still fragile, so it won't come for me a > a surprise if Python 3.4 conventions are not the same as in 3.3. What do you mean w.r.t. python 3 toolchain fragility? AFAIK distutils and distribute work fine with Python 3, and have the same interface as with Python 2. > > So, there are two questions: > 1. If you were designing Python from scratch right now now - which > name would you choose `__build__` or `build` for the temporary > directory? I don't know what I'd choose, __build__ is a bit too cute for my taste. I do know that I also use "build" as the name for build directories outside of Python, and have done so from before I used Python. Anyway, we are not designing from scratch, and that means you have to take the cost of change into account. Given the, at best, small improvement I don't think it worthwhile to change the default. See also <http://www.boredomandlaziness.org/2011/02/status-quo-wins-stalemate.html>. > 2. Is the Python 3.x already mature enough to deny any improvements > (considering these are improvements) for the 3.4 version? Of course not, but there is a balance between the cost of changes and the improvements those bring. Ronald > >> If the name of the build directory bothers you you can change it by adding >> two lines to ~/.pydistutils.cfg: >> >> [build] >> build-base = __build__ _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
