[Numpy-discussion] arrayobject.h (and friends) install location

[pearu at cens.ioc.ee]

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Sasha wrote:

> On 1/16/06, pearu at cens.ioc.ee <pearu at cens.ioc.ee> wrote:
> > ...
> > Basically, the main argument behind the current decision is that there are
> > systems where people don't have permissions to install header files to std
> > python include directory but they can install to python site-packages
> > (e.g. when installing prebuilt distributions).
> >
> 
> That's the argument that I mentioned.  It also seems to be not just
> the "main", but the *only* argument.  I am still not convinced.  What
> kind of systems do you have in mind?  If you are talking about Linux
> distributions that prepackage python, ...

No, not Linux. It was more like OSX issue, the exact platform should
be mentioned somewhere in the discussion that I sent. Hopefully someone
whom the header location change to std location would affect, can step
in and give better arguments here than me..

> > Also note that not all potential numpy users are able/willing/.. to use
> > --prefix option. Why we should scare them away when we can provide
> > defaults that work for all situations, though the defaults are not
> > standard and require some tolerance from developers to follow numpy docs.
> 
> Personally, I can tolerate any location less that 10 levels deep under
> install prefix and current location is only 8 :-). However, if there
> is a valid reason to change the location of include files, this
> functionality should be implemented as a (possibly default) option to
> distutils, not by treating includes as "data_files" rather than
> "headers".
> 
> If the alternative location is specified as an option in site.cfg and
> is accompanied by a comment describing how to disable it, I am sure
> there will be fewer posts asking where did the headers go in the
> future.

I'm note sure that giving more options would be better. For me the
exact location of numpy header files is unimportant as long as I have
get_numpy_include(), or when using numpy.distutils that would use correct
numpy include_dirs automatically when needed. Installing headers as data
files has worked well sofar... except those posts:) 

Enhancing distutils would be another topic.. but the process would be
too slow for the scipy project, we need numpy.distutils features now. If
someone could start PEP'ing std distutils with numpy.distutils features,
that would be great.

Pearu