outputs with the distribution object.

- fix indentation to conform to the Python style guide
- add more tests and documentation

added support for the provides, requires, and obsoletes metadata fields

Bug #1160802:  Can't build Zope on Windows w/ 2.4.1c1.

MSVCCompiler.initialize():  set self.initialized to True, as suggested
by AMK.  Else we keep growing the PATH endlessly, with each new C
extension built, until putenv() complains.

No change to NEWS because the patch that created this bug is also new
for 2.5a1 (so there's no change here to any code yet released from HEAD).

to build. Will backport to 2.4

Will backport myself.

to make using "-undefined dynamic_lookup" for linking extensions more
automatic on 10.3 and later. So if we're on that platform and
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET is not set we now set it to the current OSX
version during configure. Additionally, distutils will pick up the
configure-time value by default.

Will backport.

This patch offers a better explanation in case the MS VC++ (free)
toolkit is installed but the .NET Framework SDK is not.

info will always be in a .pdb file.

Python's own setup.py that did the same thing (and tested on Solaris,
where LDSHARED is needed...)

This support was only a first cut, and doesn't deserve to be in
a released version (where we have to support it in an ongoing
manner)

   "AutoReq: 0" to disable automatic dependency searching.

os.path.abspath(self.rpm_base) instead of os.getcwd() + '/' + self.rpm_base

calculates.  Spotted by Cort Danger Stratton.

scripts without modifying either the distutils installation or the
setup.py scripts of packages with which the new commands will be used.

Specifically, an option is added to distutils that allows additional
packages to be searched for command implementations in addition to
distutils.command.  The additional packages can be specified on the
command line or via the installation or personal configuration files
already loaded by distutils.

For discussion, see the thread starting with:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2004-August/004112.html

This closes SF patch #102241.