@pradyunsg thank you for starting this conversation.
Could you or others clarify what timeframe we need/want to make this decision in? Is this something we really oughta figure out in the next 2-3 weeks, or more like 2-3 months, or is there a solid, necessary intermediate step we can work on in the next 4-5 months while gathering data to make this decision?
I ask because this is partially a matter of user experience, and if we want to make a product decision in a somewhat rigorous way, we ought to take the time to do the kinds of things @nlhkabu has done for Warehouse – interview a sample of users (including some who don’t hang out in packaging discussions), watch them work, make maps of their mental models and user journeys, and make recommendations for the product and for documentation.
The Packaging Working Group is pursuing funding for several projects, including getting UX help with our command-line packaging and distribution tools. We have some different options we’re juggling that have different potential timescales. Thus my question.