[Numpy-discussion] Current thoughts on future directions

[Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon]

Stephen Walton wrote:
> Can I put in a good word for Fortran?  Not the language itself, but the 
> available packages for it.  I've always thought that one of the really 
> good things about Scipy was the effort put into getting all those 
> powerful, well tested, robust Fortran routines from Netlib inside 
> Scipy.  Without them, it seems to me that folks who just install the new 
> scipy_base are going to re-invent a lot of wheels.
> 
> Is it really that hard to install g77 on non-Linux platforms?
> 
I agree that Netlib should be in SciPy. But why should Netlib be in 
scipy_base? If SciPy evolves into a website of scientific packages for 
python, I presume Netcdf will be in one of those packages, maybe even a 
package by itself. Such a package, together with a couple of binary 
installers for common platforms, will be appreciated by users and 
developers who need Netcdf.

But if Netcdf is in scipy_base, you're effectively forcing most users to 
waste time on Fortran only to install something they don't need. In 
turn, those users will ask their developers for help if something goes 
wrong (or give up altogether). And those developers, also not willing to 
waste time on something they don't need, will tell their users to use 
Numerical Python instead of SciPy.

--Michiel.