[Numpy-discussion] A request for new distributions

[Jack Jansen]

On 7 Jan 2005, at 10:53, Robert Kern wrote:

> Jack Jansen wrote:
>> On 6 Jan 2005, at 23:10, Todd Miller wrote:
>>> numarray-1.2 is relatively near at hand, sometime in the next 2-3 
>>> weeks
>>> I hope.   For numarray-1.2 on the Mac,  I think all you will need to 
>>> do
>>> to get a vecLib build is:
>>>
>>> python setup.py install --use_lapack
>> Is there a reason to require the "--use_lapack"? I.e. are there any 
>> adverse consequences to using it?
>
> On other platforms, one has to edit the setup scripts to add the 
> information about where the libraries are. The default fallback is to 
> use the unoptimized version packaged with numarray.
>
> The alternative would be to add autoconf-like capabilities to the 
> setup script such that it could determine if the libraries were in the 
> default places (and valid!), then fall back to the lite versions if 
> not.

Ah, I see. So the problem is really that the library detection code 
hasn't been written.

Hmm, having a look at the code, it seems that it should be fairly 
simple to fix (but I'm not completely sure I understand the 
interdependencies between setup.py, generate.py and addons.py, so I 
don't dare creating a patch).

If the whole lapack section of addons was restructured like
if os.environ.has_key('LINALG_LIB'):
	set things up for using that path
elif os.path.exists('/usr/local/lib/atlas')
	use that
elif os.path.exists('/System/Library/Frameworks/vecLib.framework')
	use that
else
	use builtin blas_atlas

I think it would have the same functionality as now but without need 
for the -use_lapack option.

OTOH I may be oversimplifying things, I have no idea how these 
numerical libraries would normally be installed on Linux or other 
unixen, let alone on Windows.
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman