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<H1><A NAME="SECTION001100000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="concepts"></A>
<BR>
1.1 Concepts &amp; Terminology
</H1>

<P>
Using the Distutils is quite simple, both for module developers and for
users/administrators installing third-party modules.  As a developer,
your responsibilities (apart from writing solid, well-documented and
well-tested code, of course!) are:

<UL>
<LI>write a setup script (<span class="file">setup.py</span> by convention)
</LI>
<LI>(optional) write a setup configuration file
</LI>
<LI>create a source distribution
</LI>
<LI>(optional) create one or more built (binary) distributions
</LI>
</UL>
Each of these tasks is covered in this document.

<P>
Not all module developers have access to a multitude of platforms, so
it's not always feasible to expect them to create a multitude of built
distributions.  It is hoped that a class of intermediaries, called
<em>packagers</em>, will arise to address this need.  Packagers will take
source distributions released by module developers, build them on one or
more platforms, and release the resulting built distributions.  Thus,
users on the most popular platforms will be able to install most popular
Python module distributions in the most natural way for their platform,
without having to run a single setup script or compile a line of code.

<P>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span>
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