[PyQt] A Heads Up for PyQt Packagers

[Phil Thompson]

This will mainly be of interest to people who create sip, PyQt4, PyQt5 etc. packages for Linux but also anybody who builds from source.

Starting with v5.11 (ie. the next release) PyQt5 will use a private copy of the sip module. Packagers have the choice of including it with PyQt5 or creating a new package (PyQt5_sip?). The wheels will use the second approach (because the module is Python version specific, whereas the PyQt5 modules themselves are not).

There will be one last release of PyQt4 which will also use a private copy of the sip module.

As a matter of interest, wxPython also uses a private copy of the sip module.

The change fixes a 20 year old design mistake and makes it much easier to move on with SIP v5 without worrying about the baggage of PyQt4.

Phil