Friend 1: Hey man, have you heard of this “Distutils” thing in Python? What’s that all about?

Friend 2: Yeah, I think so! It’s some kind of tool to help us package and distribute our code, right? But honestly, it sounds like a headache.

Friend 1: Haha, yeah, you’re not wrong there. Distutils can be pretty confusing at first glance. But let me break it down for you in simple terms.

Friend 2: Alright, I’m listening!

Friend 1: So basically, when we want to package our code into a distributable format (like an .exe or a .zip), we use Distutils to do that. It helps us automate the process of building and installing our packages on different systems.

Friend 2: That sounds like it could save us some time, but how does it work exactly?

Friend 1: Well, you write a setup script (usually called “setup.py”) that tells Distutils what to do with your code. You can think of this as the recipe for building and installing your package.

Friend 2: Hmm, sounds like we need to learn how to write these setup scripts then! But where do we start?

Friend 1: That’s where Setuptools comes in. It’s a library that builds on top of Distutils and makes it easier to use. With Setuptools, you can add some extra features like dependencies, testing, and documentation.

Friend 2: Wow, that sounds awesome! But how do we install Setuptools? Do we have to download it separately or is it already included in Python?

Friend 1: Actually, Setuptools isn’t part of the standard library, so you need to install it first. You can use pip (which comes with Python) to install Setuptools easily. Just run “pip install setuptools” and you should be good to go!

Friend 2: Alright, got it. So how do we write a setup script using Setuptools?

Friend 1: Let’s say we have a package called “my_package”. We can create a new file called “setup.py” in the root directory of our project and add some basic information to it. Here’s an example:

# Importing the necessary module "setup" from the package "setuptools"
from setuptools import setup

# Defining the name and version of our package
setup(name='my_package', version='1.0')

# The "setup" function is used to specify the details of our package, such as its name, version, and other optional parameters. 
# In this case, we are only providing the required parameters, but we can add more if needed.

Friend 2: That looks pretty simple! What else can we do with Setuptools?

Friend 1: Well, you can add dependencies to your package using the “install_requires” keyword argument in setup(). For example:

# Import the necessary module 'setup' from the package 'setuptools'
from setuptools import setup

# Import the module 're' for regular expressions
import re

# Set up the package with a name and version
setup(name='my_package', version='1.0')

# Add a dependency on another package called 'regex' using the "install_requires" keyword argument in setup()
install_requires=['regex']

# Include some files in our package using the "packages" keyword argument
# Here, we are adding the package 'mypackage' to our setup
packages = ['mypackage']

Friend 2: That makes sense! So we can add dependencies and include specific files in our package. What else?

Friend 1: You can also add tests to your setup script by creating a file called “tests/__init__.py” and adding some test code inside it. Then, you can use the “test_suite” keyword argument to run those tests during installation or packaging. For example:

# Import the necessary module 'setup' from the 'setuptools' package
from setuptools import setup

# Import the regular expression module 're'
import re

# Set up the package name and version
setup(name='my_package', version='1.0')

# Add a dependency on another package called 'regex'
# Use the 'install_requires' keyword argument to specify dependencies
install_requires=['regex']

# Include some files in our package using the "packages" keyword argument
# Specify the package name in a list
packages = ['mypackage']

# Run tests during installation or packaging
# Use the 'test_suite' keyword argument to specify the test suite
test_suite='tests'

Friend 2: Wow, that was really helpful! I feel like we can handle Distutils and Setuptools now. Thanks for explaining it to me in a way that made sense!

Friend 1: No problem man! Remember, learning these tools takes time and practice, but once you get the hang of them, they’ll save you so much time and effort when packaging your code.