[SciPy-dev] adding LAPACK and BLAS to the source code

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "RK" == Robert Kern <kern at caltech.edu> writes:

    >> Right, but the build process would have to do this on the fly,
    >> and making an os.system call to winzip is not a reliable
    >> option.  While widely used, it isn't nearly as ubiquitous as
    >> tar is on Unix machines.

    RK> True, true. In that case zipping it and using zipfile from the
    RK> Standard Library would be best.

Yes, it seems the best portable way of doing this.  However there are
problems with this approach too.  Compressed zip files will require
that the zlib module be compiled.  My install has zlib but does every
Python install include the zlib module?  The other problem with using
a zip file to distribute lapack along with CVS is that the smallest
change of a file inside the zip file will require a fresh download.
It would also mess up CVS because CVS is pretty lousy with binary
files.  So if anything changes it would cause problems.  One
possibility is that the build utilities look for a zip file in a
specific directory and those folks who need to use the lapack sources
simply download the new version and stick it in the right place.  The
builder uses this and compiles everything.  This way we keep the zip
file out of CVS's hair.

cheers,
prabhu