I am confused as to exactly what Crate.io does differently to PyPi. Yes, it is a better web interface, but what are the actual improvements over PyPi? Why would we use it? Wouldn't it be better for the PyPi website to get a revamp?
As it is now the front page of PyPi https://pypi.python.org/pypi gives us more information than the front page of Crate.
I like that it's quick, PyPi is a bit slow for me at the moment.
I also like the info page for a specific package (https://crate.io/packages/docopt/#description), it's nice and informative, quite easy to read but I do not like that you have to click the info tab to see the classifiers (which python versions it works with, among other things).
What is the key arguments and features that should make us want to use Crate.io over PyPi?
I mostly interface with PyPi via pip on the commandline.
Is crate supposed to be a drop-in replacement? Can we just make pip work against a different base url? Will you launch your own pip replacement?
How is Crate.io better than the current PyPi? The website does not mention any of this, it barely contains any text.
</ramble>, I've just wrote up a few of the questions I had while checking it out, sorry if it's a bit incoherent :-)
> How is Crate.io better than the current PyPi? The website does not mention any of this, it barely contains any text.
But it has a huge ass search field! It's all about the UX, brother; the bigger (and flatter!) the UI, the better the UX, as any UX expert will tell you.
The real answer is I have. I'm a PyPI administrator now and have been enacting a lot of these benefits on PyPI itself. Just this weekend I've deployed a CDN in front of all of PyPI so that package downloads have sped up by 1-3 orders of magnitude depending on location.
Previously I had pushed hard for getting a real valid and trusted SSL certificate on PyPI, moving the user provided html/js from packages.python.org to pythonhosted.org in order to prevent CSRF fixation attacks.
Like I said Crate is an experiment. One that has enabled me to push for good changes in PyPI.
I think you're doing good work here, and I agree that PyPI is quite a bit of a mess. One little suggestion/question, though.
CPAN: Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
Rubygems: (self-explanatory)
PyPI: Python Package Index
Crate.io: Crate? Crate.io?
Nothing about the name or any part of the domain really mentions Python, or Python packages or libraries. It's not a bad name, but it doesn't really seem like a name for a large Python package index. What's the exact rationale behind the naming?
If it actually ends up replacing PyPI it could just live on the same domain as PyPi though (provided they are okay with that). But it needs a lot of work on the front end in order to be better :-), I like the backend fixes and speed improvements though.
This looks pretty nice. It would look better if you moved away from the default Bootstrap look. You don't really say what it is, but I'm assuming it's just a front end for information from PyPI.
If it "looks pretty nice" then that's more than enough -- the author is no doubt trying to solve an actual problem, not just pander to the aesthetic whims of "design" types.
How does it pick up the packages? Is there a registration to get on board? I have some PyPi packages that aren't showing up in search, how would I go about adding said packages to this index?
yeah i like this too. very nice! and would much prefer looking at and using this to pypi.
although i will say i usually just google for a python package and come across a stackexchange that points me to some package, rather than using some index. if you can become some authoritative reference, more power to you.
Have you tried using the Cheeseshop lately? I have. It was a painfully slow and wretched experience and I ended up browsing multiple pages to find what I was looking for.
Pypi.python.org/simple is the heart of everything - do we even use a package repository to browse for packages these days - or do we rely on the blue googles?
As it is now the front page of PyPi https://pypi.python.org/pypi gives us more information than the front page of Crate.
I like that it's quick, PyPi is a bit slow for me at the moment.
I also like the info page for a specific package (https://crate.io/packages/docopt/#description), it's nice and informative, quite easy to read but I do not like that you have to click the info tab to see the classifiers (which python versions it works with, among other things).
What is the key arguments and features that should make us want to use Crate.io over PyPi?
I mostly interface with PyPi via pip on the commandline.
Is crate supposed to be a drop-in replacement? Can we just make pip work against a different base url? Will you launch your own pip replacement?
How is Crate.io better than the current PyPi? The website does not mention any of this, it barely contains any text.
</ramble>, I've just wrote up a few of the questions I had while checking it out, sorry if it's a bit incoherent :-)