[Zope3-dev] FYI: python plugin distribution format discussion on Distutils-SIG

[Phillip J. Eby]

Just a heads-up for any Zopistas that might be interested.  There's a 
discussion taking place on the Distutils-SIG regarding a binary format for 
distributing "plugins" like Zope Products or Chandler Parcels.  The idea is 
to have something like a "bdist_plugin" command to build them, and have 
them be (in the simple case) just .zip files you can add to 
sys.path.  Ideally, they will also automatically deal with whatever 
platform issues are needed in order to load extension modules and bundled 
libraries, as well.  Last, but not least, there will be some kind of way to 
add application metadata to the plugin files, such as including a 
'configure.zcml' for use by Zope.

I'm assuming that these characteristics in and of themselves would make 
this concept useful for Zope, but it may be that there are issues or use 
cases that I am not aware of, that would require input on this project from 
someone more knowledgeable than I.

Such a format could also be useful for distributing Zope itself, or other 
Python applications, using a mechanism similar to that used to make Java 
.jar files executable on some platforms.

An archive of the thread so far can be found starting at:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2004-December/004327.html