[SciPy-dev] scipy.distutils compatibility patch

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "Pearu" == Pearu Peterson <pearu at scipy.org> writes:

    Pearu> On Sun, 20 Nov 2005, Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:

    >> While trying to get TVTK working with scipy I ran into some
    >> problems with scipy.distutils and compatibilty with older code.
    >> Attached is a patch (I don't have checkin access) that adds
    >> `default_config_dict` to scipy.distutils.misc_util.  Adding
    >> this lets my simple setup.py scripts work with either
    >> scipy_distutils or scipy.distutils.

    Pearu> Thanks for the patch. It is in SVN now with small
    Pearu> depreciation warning.

Thanks!  Just a minor nit, the spelling used in this context is
usually "deprecated"[1] as against "depreciated"[2]. :-)

    >> I also found that `python setup.py build_ext --inplace` does
    >> not work correctly and it tries to build the extension module
    >> in the installed distutils directory (for
    >> e.g. /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/scipy/distutils).

    Pearu> Yes, I am aware of possible --inplace problems. When
    Pearu> building scipy, one should not build with --inplace even if
    Pearu> it would work correctly --- if something gets wrong then it
    Pearu> is very difficult to remove all the generated files inside
    Pearu> scipy source tree. So, what comes to building scipy with
    Pearu> --inplace switch, I cannot give full support on solving
    Pearu> building problems. `rm -rf build` is a *must* before
    Pearu> rebuilding scipy and starting to look into possible bugs.

    Pearu> However, if you could provide a simple example where
    Pearu> --inplace does not work as expected, I'll look into it and
    Pearu> fix any related bugs in scipy.distutils.

OK, just to clarify, I am not building scipy_core/scipy with --inplace
and am doing a normal build.  I just added support for scipy arrays to
TVTK and we use scipy_distutils there.  The enthought tree is best
used with an inplace build.  So if you have the enthought tree handy:

 svn co http://svn.enthought.com/svn/enthought/trunk enthought

Then if you build an extension module inplace inside that tree like
so:

 cd enthought/src/lib/enthought/tvtk
 python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 
Then I run into the problem I reported with scipy.distutils trying to
build the exention module array_ext.so into
site-packages/scipy/distutils/

HTH.
cheers,
prabhu

[1]   deprecate
      v 1: express strong disapproval of; deplore
      2: belittle; "The teacher should not deprecate his student's
         efforts" [syn: {depreciate}]

[2]   depreciate
      v 1: belittle; "The teacher should not deprecate his student's
           efforts" [syn: {deprecate}]
      2: lower the value of something; "The Fed depreciated the
         dollar once again" [ant: {appreciate}]
      3: lose in value; "The dollar depreciated again" [syn:
         {undervalue}, {devaluate}, {devalue}] [ant: {appreciate}]