Metadata 2.1 PEP 566 is not present in distutils

[techtonik]

Why there are no fields like Description-Content-Type from 2.1 metadata in distutils?

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/d8c93aa5d29d3cab537357018d5806a57452a8fe/Lib/distutils/dist.py#L1023

[pganssle]

@techtonik distutils is part of CPython, not part of setuptools. The reason it does not support 2.1 metadata has to do with the fact that for backwards compatibility reasons, distutils is mostly frozen in amber and the recommendation is to move to setuptools, which is actively supporting the latest metadata.

The eventual goal is to move distutils into setuptools and out of the standard library.

[techtonik]

@pganssle can you add a comment clarifying these things into the distutils class above?

[pganssle]

@techtonik distutils is not part of this project yet, and when it is the comment will be obsolete. The state of the documentation between the two projects is generally a bit of a mess and an active effort. I think a comment in the distutils code is probably just throwing a glass of water into a brushfire so I'm not inclined to take the time to do so.

Feel free to start an issue on bugs.python.org.

[techtonik]

@pganssle right now setuptools codebase inherits classes from this lib, so making a comment there will increase the chances of that new contributors can understand what is going on.

I don't see where to create an issue on https://bugs.python.org

I thought that CPython repository still accepts PRs from proprietary GitHub, and passing a glass of water through https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Lib/distutils/dist.py should not be very complicated. Please.