When should the "Natural Language" PyPI classifier be used?

Question

There is a list of classifiers that we can define in setup.py to categorize our python package in PyPI. Among those there are "Natural Language" classifiers for a few languages. When should those classifiers be included in a project's setup.py? Is it for packages related to Natural Language Processing or they should be used when the package's source code is written in a corresponding language?

Answer 1

alefteris.

Although PyPI limits the use of classifiers for those in its list, there is no explanation on how to use each classifier on the list. PyPA's sample project gives you a hint to some of them (lines 78 to 99), and also says using classifiers at all is optional!

The concept behind classifiers is better cataloguing the packages. This is also clear here. I quote and emphasize:

Although the list of classifiers is often used to declare what Python versions a project supports, this information is only used for searching & browsing projects on PyPI, not for installing projects.

That is, it helps PyPI organize packages, so they can be found through search and browsing at PyPI's website.

If your package has anything to do with a natural language in the list, I strongly suggest you to include it as a classifier. It may help your package being found and better distributed.

By the way, classifiers should not be used if your package is to be compatible with Python versions prior to 2.2.3 or 2.3.