[Pythonmac-SIG] sys.path for MacPython 2.3 - next set of questions

[Jack Jansen]

On Monday, Apr 14, 2003, at 11:54 Europe/Amsterdam, Jack Jansen wrote:

> I think I'm going to go for ~/Library/Python/2.3/site-packages, i.e. 
> scream loudly
> if you *really* don't agree.

I just thought of a problem with the whole per-user scheme: 
distributions that install more than just modules. As an example, 
Numeric installs C header files too. This can't work (at least, not 
easily) for things installed per-user.

I first thought that duplicating the whole Python structure (so there 
would be a ~/Library/Python/lib/python2.3/site-packages, but also a 
~/Library/Python/include/python2.3 where Numeric can dump its include 
files, etc) would do the trick but it doesn't: distutils can't live 
with two Python "installations" so packages dependent on Numeric won't 
find the new include files.

I'm not sure about a solution: maybe just forget about it, and let the 
Package Manager Manager (alias "the scapegoat") handle it, via a new 
warning mechanism in package descriptions ("This package needs to be 
installed system-wide preferably, installing it for the current user 
only results in reduced functionality").
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman