The person developing the package.
- A Python distribution is a versioned software archive file
- that contains Python packages, modules, and other
- files. They're preferably named using CamelCase, for example,
- "DeepThought". A distribution's contents can be installed into
- your Python installation by using Distutils' install command
- (i.e. ``python setup.py install``) or Distutils-based
- installers (for example, pip).
+ A Python distribution is a versioned compressed archive file
+ that contains Python packages, modules, and other resource
+ files. The distribution file is what an end-user will downloaded
+ from the internet and install.
+ In other fields of computing, a distribution is often called a
+ package. For example, Mac OS X and Debian call these files
+ package files. However, in Python, the term package refers to an
+ importable directory. In order to distinguish between these two
+ concepts, the compressed archive file containing code is called
+ It is not uncommon in Python to refer to a distribution using the
+ term package. While not 100% technically correct, the context of
+ the term package is usually sufficient to distinguish the meaning
A standard and basic package that comes with the Python
modules (possibly along with other packages). You can import
a package: ``import mypackage``
+ A package should not be confused with a compressed archive file
+ used to install Python code.
- A repository of distributions often with a web interface and
- XML-RPC API to automate distribution discovery and consumption.
+ A repository of distributions with a web interface to automate
+ distribution discovery and consumption.
.. seealso:: The :ref:`pypi_info` is the default packaging
index for the Python community. It is open to all