_opengl mystery

[Thomas A. Bryan]

aya wrote:

> About 1 hour ago I took a look at Python for the first time.  I installed
> all the binaries and modules

You didn't really need all of them unless you have something specific in 
mind that requires them. :)

> So. my question is:
> 
> 1) Why would this module import another module that doesn't exist?

Just a guess, but image operations would be much faster if they could 
rely on the Numeric python extension.  Since that extension is non-standard, 
the implementor of the OpenGL stuff only uses it if its available.

> 2) Where can I get these modules (either the numeric or the _opengl).  I
> have installed
>         python-doc-html-1.5.2-1.noarch.rpm
>         python-opengl-1.5.5-2.i386.rpm
>         python-imaging-1.0b1-3.i386.rpm
>         python-tkinter-1.5.2-2.i386.rpm
>         python-imaging-_tkinter-1.0b1-3.i386.rpm
> and all the supporting libs, but none of these have _opengl in them

Um...python-opengl-1.5.5-2.i386.rpm, I would guess.  See below, but 
beware that I don't actually use Python's OpenGL stuff.  I've simply 
done one too many Python installations. ;)

> 3)  Am I correct in assuming that the file in question is called
> "_opengl.py"?

Probably not.  I suspect that it's actually looking for _openglmodule.so
Of course, that doesn't explain why you're seeing that particular error.

> When I do a 'locate _opengl' all I get is
> 
> /usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/OpenGL/shared/linux2/_opengl_nummodule.so
> /usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/OpenGL/shared/linux2/_openglmodule.so

which you already have.

> 4) is that _opengl_nummodule.so the numeric module for python?

It looks like it is an OpenGL implementation that relies on the 
Numeric Python extension. Install at least python-numpy-1.11-2 if 
you want the OpenGL stuff to use _opengl_nummodule.so and (presumably)
run faster.

> If so, why does "if OpenGL._numeric:" fail in the file
> "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/OpenGL/GL/__init__.py"?

_numeric is set in /usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/OpenGL/__init__.py
based on whether multiarray is available.  multiarray is part of the 
python-numpy-1.11-2 RPM.

> Thank in advance for putting up these newbie questions

since-when-did-newbies-START-with-opengl?-ly yours
---Tom