Python Distutils
I was unable to install cython due to the strict Distutils version numbering class . For example binutils-2.18.50-20080109-2.tar.gz cannot be used with MinGW to install cython. The source documentation says that "The rationale for this versioning system will be explained in the distutils documentation." I cannot find a justification.
My question is, what is the basis for this version numbering system?
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This is another nonsense distutils. I personally remove this annoying check in my distutils installation on every windows machine I have to use.
Installing a different version of mingw will work as long as it passes the version check - but really the whole idea of checking the tools version doesn't make a lot of sense.
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My guess is the idea was to recommend that projects use a version number compatible with the StrictVersion class for easy sorting (e.g. comparing versions to know that 1.0 is newer than 1.0b). The problem is that it was never filmed and the original author of distutils moved on to other projects. When setuptools was launched as a bunch of new features and monkey patches for distutils, instead of using version classes, it defined an algorithm to convert any version number to a sortable representation. A few years ago, Tarek Ziadé took over the maintenance and development of distutils and worked on a PEP with the distutils community to determine the specification of the new version number. This PEP, PEP 386, was adopted and implemented in distutils2. It has been defined for the purpose of supporting functions,used by the community (alpha / beta / candidates, post-release markers, for example) and still allows sorting. Its more restraining than setuptools as well, but much more useful than StrictVersion and LooseVersion.
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