On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, Greg Ward wrote:
I disagree: site-packages should be for Python modules and extensions. If we have to install C headers and libraries -- and I suspect we probably do -- then they should find their own home. On Unix, perhaps another directory under <exec-prefix>/lib/python2.0, but I'm not sure what to call it that makes it clear these are for *C* programming, not Python programming. (Granted it's the specialized domain of C programming for developing Python extensions, but still.)
I disagree as well. To vastly over-simplify, why would a python package be installing headers and libraries for C only? Just because someone is installing stuff to help them code python, doesn't mean they want to load everything necessary for C development. This is why the bdist stuff distributes compiled libraries, so the installer doesn't have to deal with rebuilding. So, if someone wants to provide C interfaces, it should be done seperate from the python interfaces, obviously with the python package dependent on the C libraries. The C interface should also have seperate run-time and development sub-packages, so most people, including those using the python package would only require the run-time. For example,you have gkt+, gtk+-devel, and python-pygtk. python-pygtk would require gkt+, but not gtk+-devel. I think getting distutils involved with C headers and (C only) libraries is going beyond it's scope without good cause. Mark Alexander mwa@gate.net