[Chandler-dev] Chandler new-version detection

[Morgen Sagen]

We want to provide a way to let the user know that a new version of  
Chandler is available.  I, and others, have been looking at how other  
apps solve this and have been keeping notes in bug 603 ( https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=603 
  ).  Not wanting to reinvent the wheel I asked Phillip about  
setuptools, and in the simplest form you can do something like:

    pi = PackageIndex()
    dist = pi.obtain(Requirement.parse("Somepackage>Someversion"))

    if dist is not None:
        # it exists and can be downloaded

Under the hood it uses urllib, which we can configure to honor  
whatever proxy settings the user has entered in Chandler.  Heikki  
mentioned a desire to use HTTPS which means we would need proxy  
support for HTTPS as well.

What do people think about using setuptools for new-version detection?

~morgen