[Distutils] C extension modules

[David Cournapeau]

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 8:00 PM, Tarek Ziadé <ziade.tarek at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 11:06 AM, David Cournapeau <cournape at gmail.com> wrote:
> [..]
>> I avoid CCompiler functions like the plague in numpy.distutils extensions,
>> because their behavior is very platform specific, especially between
>> MS compiler and Unix ones, where the attributes are not the same).
>
> I am not an expert at all in compiling C/C++ for Python, but it seems
> that using 'define_macros' works for what was asked.

It does work, but I believe that's kludgy once you have more than a
few macros (it cluttered the output, you may end up having too long
command lines, etc...). It is also useful to have one config.h which
is then included in a myconfig.h which customize some macro depending
on config.h, for example to bypass automatic configuration for some
special cases.

>
> So how do you do it in numpy.distutils and why/how is it better or simpler?

We just extend the config command with our own functions - nothing
particular, mostly duct tape to deal with correct initialization of
our own extensions (fortran, etc...). The biggest issue is the
different context I have mentioned: you can only configure things in
the config command context, which means it cannot affect the setup
arguments. Though I guess that's only a problem for big projects.

David