[SciPy-dev] Getting SciPy ready for New Core

[Robert Kern]

Travis Oliphant wrote:
> I've been cleaning up the setup scripts for new scipy.
> 
> I'm "done" with io and am onto special.
> 
> I'd like to test for the existence of certain functions and 
> conditionally compile some of the code, very similar to what was done in 
> setup.py of scipy.base
> 
> Now, there was a lot of effort there to find the mathlibraries first so 
> they could be linked against on a trial run.  Is that information stored 
> anywhere so that scipy.disutils.misc_util.get_math_libs()  or something 
> can be used?
> 
> It would be really useful, if it were.

For that, you could parse config.h as is done in
scipy/base/setup.py[76:86]. We really do need a general configuration
mechanism that can detect things and save what was detected.

PETSc's BuildSystem does this particularly well. I'll start looking into
integrating its configuration component with distutils.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
 Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
  -- Richard Harter