First, this does not require code to execute (which setuptools require). Second, the problem is to know what to copy, or rather what to get. even when it's pur

First, this does not require code to execute (which setuptools require). Second, the problem is to know what to copy, or rather what to get. even when it's pure python it can be a problem (e.g py2 vs py3) and it's even more of one with e.g C extensions, where you have a choice of building it from source (thus requiring gcc and all build dependencies such as headers) or getting a pre-built binary tied to a given platform. Ruby gems support that since quite some time, and it's a bliss to install e.g the libv8 gem in a few seconds vs a lengthy build. [0]: https://rubygems.org/gems/libv8/versions https://rubygems.org/gems/libv8/versions