[SciPy-dev] requesting feedback on/editing of scikits wiki-page

[Alexander Schmolck]

Hi everyone,


As the author of the first (if yet unreleased) scikit, I've tried to put some
info for prospective scikit authors on

 <http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/scikits/wiki/WikiStart>

that tries to condense down the most important points for those who are not
yet familiar with the required infrastructure like setuptools (which is fairly
rich) etc. to make things a little less overwhelming. A few things also still
need clarification. As I'm myself just learning to get to grips with various
of these things, so this page could use some attention from someone more
knowledgable than me.

Here are a few specific points (search for FIXME/XXX in the document)

0. Blurp: What sort of things are suitable for a scikit project, what
   requirements must be met by projects or authors to qualify (this should
   also include something on acceptable/desirable[1] licenses, dependencies,
   code quality etc.) and what the overall aims and immediate future for
   scikits look like. I'm not really the person to write that so I just wrote
   something brief and vague.

1. Trac: I'm not really that familiar with trac, but I assume some sorts of
   conventions/infrastructure will need to be established in order for
   logically independent projects to use the same trac effectively. I guess
   one first step might be to use ``trac-admin`` to create each scikit (i.e.
   mlabwrap) as a component? 

2. Homepage/Wiki/Docstandards etc. info. 

   Hmm, it occurs to me that a link to coding standards might also be a good
   idea...

3. Versioning: I think it would be nice if there were a standard way how
   people version their scikits, both conventions-wise as well as how the
   process is automated as far as is possible. I've outlined a
   setuptools-based solution in preference to one using numpy.distutils docs
   pretty opaque[1].

4. Testing: looks like I'll need to write this some other time...

Please fix directly as you see fit or post here if you have suggestions or
want to discuss it.

thanks,

'as

p.s. The transfer of the mlabwrap svn to scipy org has been delayed, otherwise
     I'd have added some links to the mlabwrap code to.

Footnotes: 
[1] From looking at <http://www.scipy.org/Documentation/numpy_distutils>, it's
    pretty difficult to figure out what it's good for 
   -- there is no rationale who might want to use it and why (see below for an
   attempt), instead it starts out by describing the scipy structure and
   requirements for scipy packages Evidently some people who are not
   interested in writing scipy packages might also benefit from
   numpy.distutils (scikits authors for example), so it'd would really help to
   have a short list of features that numpy.distutils has over plain distutils
   and setuptools and to whom they might be relevant. The second obvious
   question is how numpy.distutils relates to/plays along with setuptools.

   Here is an attempt to what the numpy.distutils could say at the beginning
   concerning possible candidates for packages that should use numpy.distutils:

         - all scipy packages (?)
         - packages that need fortran extensions
         - packages that requires subpackages (but setuptools should take care of
           that too?)
         - packages that want certain conveniences such as non manual
           version-info-support and other code-generation

   I think setuptools should also be explicitly mentioned.