[pqm/MERGE/pqm] Switch to distutils

[Daniel Watkins]

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 13:15:55 +0200
Jelmer Vernooij <jelmer at samba.org> wrote:
> Thanks for the review! Fixed in the attached patch.
I'd very much like to see this merged.  When considering from a user's
perspective:
  a) a Debian/Ubuntu package is much easier than other methods of
     installation, and I believe Jelmer started writing this patch to
     make packaging PQM easier;
  b) distutils is a much better known method of dealing with the
     installation of Python programs than autotools, so users will have
     a better idea of what they're doing; and
  c) autotools is scary, and can put users off when they first look at
     PQM (it had this effect on me)

I think there are also benefits from a development side, which
essentially mirror (b) and (c) above.  I think using autotools will
give the codebase a bad smell to a lot of Python developers.  New
developers without experience in languages that normally use autotools
(e.g. me) are likely to be scared off by autotools (I was, initially).

I know that Robert will say (and has previously said) that switching to
distutils is adding code that needs to be maintained, but I think the
above advantages outweigh the disadvantage of extra maintenance.  I also
think that more Python people will know how to maintain and modify
setup.py than will know how to maintain and modify an autotools build
process.


Regards,
-- 
Daniel Watkins (Odd_Bloke)