[Distutils] Fortran compiler (updated SF patch)

[Pearu Peterson]

On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:

> Pearu Peterson wrote:
> > 
> > But on the other hand, Fortran stuff in scipy_distutils is generic in
> > the sense that it can be used in other projects as well (and indeed,
> > scipy_distutils is used separately from scipy already). So, ideal
> > place for Fortran stuff would be in the standard distutils, IMHO.
> 
> How much code are we talking about here ?

About 1400LOC in command/{build_flib,run_f2py}.py that are directly
related to Fortran support (Fortran compiler definitions, extension
generator, etc) plus some additional hooks to glue it with distutils.

> > However, there might be some voices against adding Fortran stuff to
> > distutils core. See the thread starting at
> > 
> > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2001-August/002569.html   
> 
> Paul may be right in the sense that
> a) Fortran isn't generally used
> b) the code is too compiler specific

Paul may be also wrong in the sense that
a) Fortran is generally used in scientific community.
b) What code? In scipy_distutils/command/build_flib.py compiler specific
code is well factored considering the number of supported compilers and
that scipy_distutils is used both in Unix and Windows platforms.
c) I have been in the business of Fortran-Python connection for more than
three years and I know the releated issues well but I don't share Paul's
pessimism. Considering the current development I can tell that this
pessimism was not justified.

Regards,
	Pearu