February 15, 2008

PyPI - the package toilet of the Python world

PyPI is becoming more and more the huge Python module toilet.


Why?

Lots of upload packages often don't contain a description or don't contain any URL to the project homepage or SVN repository.

So what is the value of uploading such packages to PyPI?

  • For the uploader: a convenient place for making poor releases.
  • For the PyPI user/visitor: none

What I do expect from a quality release on PyPI:

  • The metadata must contain a reasonable description
  • The metadata should include the README.txt or at least contain a direct link to the documentation. Nothing is more annoying than having to step to repositories in order to find the proper documentation. The documentation must be only one mouse-click away
  • The metadata should contain the release notes or at least a direct link to the release notes
  • The metadata must  contain direct links to the source code repository and to the project homepage
  • I am uncertain about if development packages (modules released with _some_ internal SVN revision number) should be placed on PyPI. I would  prefer having only official releases following the X.Y.Z version numbering schema on PyPI