[SciPy-dev] distutils and persistent system information

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

Hi,

I have a question on how do get something optimally working for SciPy.
Very specifically, it concerns weave's wxPython/wxWidgets capability
and VTK Python<->C++ capabilities.  The issues:

 1. Both wxPython and VTK (and any other converters that will be added
    in future) require knowledge of the users setup.  Namely, where
    wx/VTK are installed, where the libraries are etc.  Expecting the
    user to supply these at run-time is a possibility but it is a pain
    and leads to problems if the inlined code is moved between
    machines/platforms.

 2. The configuration needs to be on a per installation basis,
    preferably one that is run at build time.  Detecting the paths at
    run-time for each inlined call would be slow.

 3. It would be ideal if the configuration could be changed by a sys
    admin (or the user) if any of the paths changed after the install.
    The key file to change should of course be well documented in the
    README.  Better still a script to update the data could be
    provided.

So here are my questions:

 1. Is the above possible currently?

 2. If it isn't possible is it a good idea to add this functionality?

The functionality in system_info looks like it might do the trick but
from what I understand it only allows for build time configuration and
it does not save any of the discovered information that can be used
later at run-time.  I would think that a "config.cfg" file for site
specific information would be a good idea.  What do you folks suggest?

cheers,
prabhu