[SciPy-dev] problems with numpy.setuptools("single_version_externally_managed")

[Pearu Peterson]

David Cournapeau wrote:
> Pearu Peterson wrote:
>> Actually, there exist a simple and proper fix (as usual;):
>>
>> numpy ccompiler.py should check if distutils.msvccompiler is
>> imported (via sys.modules). If it is, then set
>>
>>    distutils.msvccompiler.gen_lib_options = <our gen_lib_options>
>>
>>   
> But is this the only case where setuptools and numpy.distutils rewrite 
> some classes ?

No. gen_lib_options is a function. And numpy.distutils rewrites
several methods in distutils classes. I don't know what setuptools does.

> I am just a bit afraid that modifying runtime objects 
> both in numpy.distutils and setuptools will cause other problems in the 
> near future 

There will be problems for sure and we are fixing them gradually as they
appear - that is a normal process.
Since we as stuck to distutils then we don't have alternatives to
these kind of fixes.

 > (my impression is that it is safe to assume setuptools will
> become part of the standard library in python at some point, and we will 
> have to cope with it).

Note that we are currently supporting python versions starting from 2.3.
I don't know if setuptools is a part of python 2.6 already but
even then we need to keep distutils support until we drop support
for python 2.5. I bet this will not happen in the coming 5 years
at least.

Pearu