The disaster part is not the tooling, but indeed the nobody understanding how "X" solves the problem and actually choosing an "X" and stick with it. There is a

The disaster part is not the tooling, but indeed the nobody understanding how "X" solves the problem and actually choosing an "X" and stick with it. There is a clear lack of _direct_ and _concise_ documentation about Python packaging. Something between overly descriptive reference documentation which nobody reads and "copy-paste this setup.py" that teaches nothing of substance. Let me use the OP as an example: "Wheels are the new standard of python distribution and are intended to replace eggs." Ok, I've done my share of Python coding and have published stuff on PyPI and this sentence means absolutely nothing to me. I'm not even sure I can define what an egg is if someone asks me. It probably means even less for someone trying to make it's own package. One important thing to remember is that packaging is a means to an end. Nobody gets excited about packaging so nobody wants to know too much, but also not too little that thinking about doing it instills feelings of dread. PS: This applies to other packaging scenarios too. I've seen people fall to their knees when faced with building Debian packages for deployment (ending up not doing it at all), RPMs, etc.