[Distutils] Python packages

Michel Sanner sanner@scripps.edu
Mon, 3 May 1999 13:51:55 -0700


Hello,

I am once again in the Python update phase and (of course) running into the
same type of problems regarding the installation of packages.

I believe that Python should provide support for installing packages that
contain both platform independant files (.py) and platform dependant files
(.so, .dso .pyd). The reason is that I do not want to install (and maintain)
multiple copies of the .py (one for each paltform I support). It seems to me
that this is one ogf the benefits of platform independance. The problem right
now is that the only way to do this (I know of) if to hack together an
__init__.py file for the package placed in the paltform independant part of the
installation tree and that would add the right directory to the PATH for
importing .so files.
The problem with that is that I need to do that for every single package.

Would it be unreasonable to have the Python import mechanism check for packages
in the $prefix AND the $exec_prefix directory ?

-Michel