diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 3aa6960..dd0e372 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -63,9 +63,7 @@ from setupbase import (
     find_entry_points,
     build_scripts_entrypt,
     find_data_files,
-    check_for_readline,
     git_prebuild,
-    get_bdist_wheel,
     install_symlinked,
     install_lib_symlink,
     install_scripts_for_symlink,
@@ -181,8 +179,6 @@ setuptools_extra_args = {}
 
 # setuptools requirements
 
-pyzmq = 'pyzmq>=13'
-
 extras_require = dict(
     parallel = ['ipyparallel'],
     qtconsole = ['qtconsole'],
@@ -194,10 +190,6 @@ extras_require = dict(
     notebook = ['notebook'],
     nbconvert = ['nbconvert'],
 )
-
-if sys.version_info < (3, 3):
-    extras_require['test'].append('mock')
-
 install_requires = [
     'decorator',
     'pickleshare',
@@ -205,16 +197,28 @@ install_requires = [
     'traitlets',
 ]
 
-# add platform-specific dependencies
-if sys.platform == 'darwin':
-    install_requires.append('appnope')
-    if 'bdist_wheel' in sys.argv[1:] or not check_for_readline():
-        install_requires.append('gnureadline')
-
-if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
-    extras_require['terminal'].append('pyreadline>=2.0')
-else:
-    install_requires.append('pexpect')
+# Platform-specific dependencies:
+# This is the correct way to specify these,
+# but requires pip >= 6. pip < 6 ignores these.
+extras_require.update({
+    ':sys_platform != "win32"': ['pexpect'],
+    ':sys_platform == "darwin"': ['appnope', 'gnureadline'],
+    'terminal:sys_platform == "win32"': ['pyreadline>=2'],
+    'test:python_version == "2.7"': ['mock'],
+})
+# FIXME: re-specify above platform dependencies for pip < 6
+# These would result in non-portable bdists.
+if not any(arg.startswith('bdist') for arg in sys.argv):
+    if sys.version_info < (3, 3):
+        extras_require['test'].append('mock')
+
+    if sys.platform == 'darwin':
+        install_requires.extend(['appnope', 'gnureadline'])
+
+    if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
+        extras_require['terminal'].append('pyreadline>=2.0')
+    else:
+        install_requires.append('pexpect')
 
 everything = set()
 for deps in extras_require.values():
@@ -222,8 +226,6 @@ for deps in extras_require.values():
 extras_require['all'] = everything
 
 if 'setuptools' in sys.modules:
-    setup_args['cmdclass']['bdist_wheel'] = get_bdist_wheel()
-    
     setuptools_extra_args['zip_safe'] = False
     setuptools_extra_args['entry_points'] = {
         'console_scripts': find_entry_points(),
diff --git a/setupbase.py b/setupbase.py
index d5b7144..6ee34cf 100644
--- a/setupbase.py
+++ b/setupbase.py
@@ -409,27 +409,6 @@ class install_scripts_for_symlink(install_scripts):
                                    ('skip_build', 'skip_build'),
                                   )
 
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Verify all dependencies
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-def check_for_readline():
-    """Check for GNU readline"""
-    try:
-        import gnureadline as readline
-    except ImportError:
-        pass
-    else:
-        return True
-    try:
-        import readline
-    except ImportError:
-        return False
-    else:
-        if sys.platform == 'darwin' and 'libedit' in readline.__doc__:
-            print("Ignoring readline linked to libedit", file=sys.stderr)
-            return False
-        return True
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # VCS related
@@ -485,70 +464,3 @@ def git_prebuild(pkg_dir, build_cmd=build_py):
                 ])
     return MyBuildPy
 
-
-
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# bdist related
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-def get_bdist_wheel():
-    """Construct bdist_wheel command for building wheels
-    
-    Constructs py2-none-any tag, instead of py2.7-none-any
-    """
-    class RequiresWheel(Command):
-        description = "Dummy command for missing bdist_wheel"
-        user_options = []
-
-        def initialize_options(self):
-            pass
-
-        def finalize_options(self):
-            pass
-
-        def run(self):
-            print("bdist_wheel requires the wheel package")
-            sys.exit(1)
-
-    if 'setuptools' not in sys.modules:
-        return RequiresWheel
-    else:
-        try:
-            from wheel.bdist_wheel import bdist_wheel, read_pkg_info, write_pkg_info
-        except ImportError:
-            return RequiresWheel
-        
-        class bdist_wheel_tag(bdist_wheel):
-
-            def add_requirements(self, metadata_path):
-                """transform platform-dependent requirements"""
-                pkg_info = read_pkg_info(metadata_path)
-                # pkg_info is an email.Message object (?!)
-                # we have to remove the unconditional 'readline' and/or 'pyreadline' entries
-                # and transform them to conditionals
-                requires = pkg_info.get_all('Requires-Dist')
-                del pkg_info['Requires-Dist']
-                def _remove_startswith(lis, prefix):
-                    """like list.remove, but with startswith instead of =="""
-                    found = False
-                    for idx, item in enumerate(lis):
-                        if item.startswith(prefix):
-                            found = True
-                            break
-                    if found:
-                        lis.pop(idx)
-                
-                for pkg in ("gnureadline", "pyreadline", "mock", "terminado", "appnope", "pexpect"):
-                    _remove_startswith(requires, pkg)
-                requires.append("gnureadline; sys.platform == 'darwin' and platform.python_implementation == 'CPython'")
-                requires.append("pyreadline (>=2.0); extra == 'terminal' and sys.platform == 'win32' and platform.python_implementation == 'CPython'")
-                requires.append("pyreadline (>=2.0); extra == 'all' and sys.platform == 'win32' and platform.python_implementation == 'CPython'")
-                requires.append("mock; extra == 'test' and python_version < '3.3'")
-                requires.append("appnope; sys.platform == 'darwin'")
-                requires.append("pexpect; sys.platform != 'win32'")
-                for r in requires:
-                    pkg_info['Requires-Dist'] = r
-                write_pkg_info(metadata_path, pkg_info)
-        
-        return bdist_wheel_tag
-