Wheel

Definitions

1. A pre-built Python package distribution format (.whl) defined in PEP 427 that contains compiled extensions and metadata in a standardized zip archive, enabling pip to install packages without running setup.py or invoking a compiler — significantly faster than installing from source distributions (sdist).

   In plain English: A pre-packaged Python library format that installs quickly because everything is already compiled and ready to use.

   Example: "The CI build went from eight minutes to two once we started caching the wheel files instead of rebuilding numpy from source every time."

Related Terms

• NumPy
• asyncio
• Bundler
• Data Class
• Decorator
• Django
• Dynamic Typing
• Flask