The instructions can't be followed verbatim for the simple reason that the suggested package name, example_pkg is already in use on TestPyPI. TestPyPI will give the (newbie, student) user this unhelpful message:
[username] cannot upload to package example_pkg.
It unhelpful because it's missing a because clause in the sentence. E.g., "... because another account owns this package name."
I saw a user go and check their account settings, password, etc., not knowing that these had nothing to do with the problem. And then if the user does intuit what the problem might be, they'd need to restart the tutorial, or maybe try editing the generated files, making a mess of things.
Currently the only hint that the tutorial isn't workable as-is is found at the end of the name attribute description, which is easy to overlook:
name is the name of your package. This can be any name as long as only contains letters, numbers, _ , and -. It also must not already taken on pypi.org.
My suggestion
We edit the tutorial to include choosing a new name for the test project, and warning that there's the possibility that they've chosen a name that already exists. And if so, what error to expect.
Secondly, the tutorial should follow suit, and use some seemingly random name in the examples, like example_pkg_blue_flowers.
The instructions can't be followed verbatim for the simple reason that the suggested package name,
example_pkgis already in use on TestPyPI. TestPyPI will give the (newbie, student) user this unhelpful message:It unhelpful because it's missing a because clause in the sentence. E.g., "... because another account owns this package name."
I saw a user go and check their account settings, password, etc., not knowing that these had nothing to do with the problem. And then if the user does intuit what the problem might be, they'd need to restart the tutorial, or maybe try editing the generated files, making a mess of things.
Currently the only hint that the tutorial isn't workable as-is is found at the end of the
nameattribute description, which is easy to overlook:My suggestion
We edit the tutorial to include choosing a new name for the test project, and warning that there's the possibility that they've chosen a name that already exists. And if so, what error to expect.
Secondly, the tutorial should follow suit, and use some seemingly random name in the examples, like
example_pkg_blue_flowers.