dl module on 64 bit processor

[Jean-François Simon]

Hi everybody,

I hope I'm on the right list. If not please, redirect me.

I use mayavi, a data visualizator. It's based on VTK graphic librairies 
and is write
in python.

After installing the today version vtk on a alpha processor, I get this 
message error :

 File "/usr/bin/mayavi", line 282, in ?
    import mayavi
  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/mayavi/__init__.py", line 5, in ?
    import Common, Base.Objects
  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/mayavi/Base/__init__.py", line 
19, in ?    import Objects
  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/mayavi/Base/Objects.py", line 
20, in ?
    import Tkinter, vtkpython, math, tkColorChooser
  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/vtk_python/vtkpython.py", line 
7, in ?
    from vtk import *
  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/vtk_python/vtk/__init__.py", 
line 9, in ?
    import dl
SystemError: module dl requires sizeof(int) == sizeof(long) == sizeof(char*)

I replace the  __init__.py file ( .../vtk_python/vtk/__init__.py) by the 
older  one of the version 4.2 of VTK,
that not call the dl module and everything went all right.

The problem of the dl module with 64 bit processor has been adressed here :
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-checkins/2002-September/029564.html

So I'm asking if it's not possible to include a check on architecture of 
the processor and skip
the call of the dl module ? And  what is the utility of the dl module  ? 
Why is it reintroduce
in the current version of VTK wrapping python ?


Thanks in advance

Jean-François