eric,

if you recall there was some discussion that it was acceptable to use distutils but *only* for python 2.N (on the basis that its use is so well entrenched that it would be impossible to force python2.N applications to start using distutils2), and i agreed wholeheartedly with you that the expectation to use distutils2 would be reasonable for python3.N

just as an aside: have all python 3.N packaging scripts, for all python-dev scripts *and* all 3rd party packages world-wide, been using distutils2 by default instead of distutils?