setuptools for Python modules

[Duncan Gibson]

I just investigated a submission for a new module, simplejson.
This is a Python module that uses  Python setup for installation.
Cool. There's already a setuptools module, but simplejson did
not have a dependency on it, and I didn't have it installed.

But when I installed simplejson, something was clever enough
to first install the Python setup tools directly, bypassing the
setuptools module completely. So the setuptools module still
appears as a "not installed" module.

Question: is it worthwhile to:
(a) add "depends setuptools" to the new simplejson module,
    and potentially a lot of other python based modules, or
(b) just let modules auto-install it if needed outside of the
    lunar package management system and hence untracked, or
(c) somehow add setuptools as a post-install to Python itself?

Cheers
Duncan