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

[David Cournapeau]

Pearu Peterson wrote:
>> 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.
>   
Isn't it possible to use a subclass instead of modifying the existing one ?
>  > (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.
>   
Sure, I've never implied to use setuptools only or to stop depending on 
distutils, just that it may be better to avoid modifying distutils on 
the fly when possible to avoid friction with setuptools as much as possible.

cheers,

David