Include packaging.version in CI builds?

[achilleas-k]

A couple of days ago I opened PR #636 to add version checking for library compatibility between the NIX IO and the NIXPy library. Instead of parsing the version string manually (split on "." and int() the parts), @JuliaSprenger rightly suggested that it would be better to use Version objects, from the packaging.version module, but the module isn't available in the CI builds (except for Python 3.4 on Travis for some reason).

Will the packaging module be added to the CI builds or should I revert to parsing manually?

[samuelgarcia]

There is one in the distutils package which is builtin in py2 and py3.
No ?

import distutils.version
distutils.version.LooseVersion(...)>'3.5.1'

I always use this but this maybe not the standard way.

[achilleas-k]

The issue with distutils.version is that, as far as I can tell, it's meant to just be there to report on the package version and any other functionality is undocumented.
https://docs.python.org/2/distutils/apiref.html#module-distutils.version
https://docs.python.org/3.7/distutils/apiref.html#module-distutils.version

EDIT: I don't mind though. I'll switch to using that if you prefer it.

[achilleas-k]

Is there a decision on this?

[JuliaSprenger]

If distutils is already there we can go on and use it for now and not introduce additional dependencies.

[samuelgarcia]

I am also in not intriduce dependencies.

[apdavison]

after more discussion, @samuelgarcia @JuliaSprenger and I are in favour of using distutils.version

[achilleas-k]

Updated PR. Closing the issue.

[samuelgarcia]

New in python 3.8

from importlib.metadata import version
version(XXXX)```