Installing modules (SciPy) without root permission.

[Jacek Generowicz]

A while ago I introduced someone (who occasionally wrote some Fortran,
and maybe plotted some results with matlab) to Python, as a means of
making efficient use of a computer. The experiment seems to have been
successful, because I am now being asked for advice on doing some more
things in python.

I think that SciPy would be useful at this point, but it is not
available on the machines where we might be working ... this brings me
to observe two points:


1) I often find myself in an environment where the local python
   installation does not have a module I wish to use (usually
   Numeric), and where I do not have write access to the python
   installation directories. 

   Is there a way to add such modules without re-installing python in
   my own space ? 

2) I have been meaning to check-out SciPy for a while now, but the
   installation process seems almost fractal; each required package
   itself requires some packages, each of which requires ...  :-) As
   SciPy is not essential to me, I have not been sufficiently
   motivated to coplete this process (my strongest effort ground to a
   halt with gtk incompatibiliy problems, IIRC).

   Is installing SciPy really as painful as it seems ?  (If so, is
   there any hope that it will become easier ?)


If I am to convince my (reluctant computer user) friend that using
SciPy might be a good idea, the whole process can't start by wasting a
whole afternoon (day, week ...) on merely installing it (something
which he would have to do "back home").


I'd appreciate useful suggestions ...

Thanks,