Re: [Distutils] Proposal: using /etc/os-release in the "platform tag" definition for wheel files

On Sat, 29 Nov 2014 01:27:44 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Is this not going to be a slippery slope?> > Only if folks publish Linux binaries themselves, and that's still a> bad idea (for the same reason publishing distro binaries is already a> rare thing for people to do).

Well, let's not make this a matter of ideology. Everyone knows it's a
bad idea to publish binaries, yet it's often better than nothing,
especially if the software is tedious to compile.

> > How many binary packages will package authors have to provide to cover> > people's needs? Windows + OS X + Linux multiplied by 32 / 64 multiplied> > by three or four Python versions is already a lot of binaries to> > build...> > I'd still advise against folks posting Linux wheels on PyPI, just as> they tend not to post RPM or deb files. This is so we can provide> wheels at the distro level (or build them internally) without creating> vast amounts of confusion.

So do we (software authors) have to wait for that mythical "we" who are
going to build binaries in time for our packages?

Case in point: can I ask you (the mythical "we") to build packages for
all major distros (including supported LTS releases), and the four most
recent Python versions, of the following piece of software:
https://github.com/numba/llvmlite

:-)

> This isn't really about that - it's about having a way to> tackle it at the distro level, without introducing significant> potential for confusion on end user systems

I'm not sure I understand: distros provide their own packages, they
don't (shouldn't) blindly pull binary wheels from PyPI. Why would they
depend on the wheel tagging format?

> The difference isn't really that surprising - both Microsoft and Apple> have relied heavily on intellectual monopoly laws to retain control of> their ecosystems. You can do a lot to constrain the choices of others> when you have the full weight of the US government and copyright> industry behind you.

That discussion is a bit off-topic, but I don't think it has anything
to do with copyright (and from I've seen in python-dev discussions,
I'm not sure Apple is a good example).

Regards

Antoine.
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