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

[David Cournapeau]

Alexander Schmolck wrote:
> 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.
>
I was thinking, why not providing a "fake" scikits package as an example ?

I have mostly converted one project to scikits/setuptools, and the info 
I think may be useful are:
    * how to use numpy.distutils (in particular, system_info classes) ?
    * I cannot make the proposed versioning scheme work, because 
pkg_resources.require('scikits') fails, even though I installed it (I 
can import it). I guess I am doing something wrong in the scikits 
namespace, or for the installation, but I don't know what.
    * more generally, how to convert a distutils pkg to setuptools.

cheers,

David
> 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.
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