astraw/stdeb — pull request #54 by eichin (2012-10-06 19:55:32+00:00)
Title: pypi-install improvements: --build-here, pypi.search

Today I found pypi-install. There's a big gap between "`pypi-install` takes a first draft try, installs it, and throws away the intermediate steps" and "you have to glue all of the pieces together by hand". In an attempt to narrow that gap, I added

* `--build-here` -- creates a directory from the package name, and keeps all of the intermediate results (tells the user where to *find* the .deb in the end, but doesn't attempt to install it.) Also improves the Quickstart 1 warnings; `pypi-install` was a "dead end" on the path to good packages, `pypi-install --build-here` is a "first draft" that you can then polish.

* `pypi.search` -- lots of packages have StudlyCaps names, which only get in the way; in particular, `MANIFEST.in` files use the all-lower-case names. If the direct lookup fails, this change just does a `pypi.search` and sanity checks it a bit. Works perfectly with StudlyCaps vs. lower-case; if it finds more matches, it stops and makes the user pick from the results.

I'll see what else I can do to improve the workflow; my main approach is going to be that "I saw something new at a pycon lightning talk, it's up on pypi, how *easily* can I get *good* packages together on my debian system?" "How easily can I share them" will probably be the next step.