[SciPy-dev] Package organization

[Arnd Baecker]

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Fernando Perez wrote:

[...]

> 3.  The scipy.{kits|tools} namespace (or whatever the chosen name).  This is
> where third parties can drop their own packages, which can depend either only
> (1) or on the full (2) system (their level of dependency should be explicitly
> stated).
>
> The kits namespace may ship empty by default, or it could be populated with a
> few things from current scipy if it is decided they are best moved there.
>
> The only thing required for projects to live in the .kits namespace is really
> to avoid top-level name collisions, so it would perhaps be worth having an
> informal policy of people checking with scipy-dev for a name before using it.
>
> This layout would allow the core team to work with relative freedom at the
> top-level namespace, without worrying about toolkits taking names they may
> need in the future.  Similarly, toolkit authors will have a well-defined API
> to build upon.

To me this looks as if there is essentially no difference
to people distributing their projects independently of scipy
(and outside of its name-space).
I still like this for two reasons
a) it would bring scientific python projects under one umbrella
b) the (hopefully) simple user installation:

[...]

> If this is combined with a CPAN-like system (eggs, PyPi, whatever), it should
> be very easy for users, once they have the basic layers in place, to grab a
> toolkit by issuing a single command or going to a website.  I'd suggest, if
> this were adopted, keeping a simple page at scipy with brief descriptions for
> each toolkit, even if they are developed/distributed externally.

Sounds very nice! I have no experience with eggs:
where do these go when a user cannot install them as root?
(Of course, a  PYTHONPATH modification should do the job.)

[...]

> Anyway, I've certainly far exceeded my opinion budget on this one, so I should
> shut up now :)

(If I disagree with this point, would this
decrease my-already-in-the-negative-I-presume opinion budget? ;-)

Best,

Arnd