Development Guide is missing instructions about using latest version

[abitrolly]

https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/development/developer-guide.html

Installing from git clone the normal way fails.

$ pip install -e .
...
  RuntimeError: Cannot build setuptools without metadata. Run `bootstrap.py`.

The role of bootstrap.py is not very clear. It is not described in the docs.

[jaraco]

Agreed it's not clear. It's also something I'd like to be rid of rather than invest time cementing the approach. Unfortunately, being rid of it might require Python packaging build support for editable packages.

In the meantime, my instinct is that the failure provides a clear directive on what to do, so while it causes a "fail first" experience, it's easily remedied.

I'd be open to contributions to the docs to provide more context that would have made your experience less surprising.

[jacalata]

This seems to be solved by PEP 660? If not, I can't repro the failure and bootstrap.py itself is gone, so presumably it has been addressed somehow.

[abravalheri]

I think the main problem now if someone wants to start completely from scratch is the cyclic dependency on wheel.