[Distutils] Sample setup.py for Numeric Python

[Greg Ward]

On 12 September 1999, Paul F. Dubois said:
> I'm eager to try it but please (a) send it as an attachment and (b) send me
> also as an attachment the archive for distutils that goes with it.

There are a few more, umm, "issues" to be resolved before I go pushing
the code into your mailbox.  (Ie. anyone is welcome to download buggy
code, but it's not yet stable enough that I'm going to go foisting it
off on people.  Even if they do ask for it. ;-)  I need to cook up some
simpler test cases than NumPy and see how they work, etc. etc.  I'll
toss the code your way when that's done.

> The syntax required of the user isn't that bad. However, I favor using a
> little language parser so that the input is less
> computer-sciency:
> 
> version 2.0
> "Numerical extension to Python"
> external module _numpy
>    sources Src/_numpymodule.c Src/arrayobject.c
>    includes Include
>    defs   numpy.def
> end

Hmmm... I've been thinking something along those lines might be needed,
but why invent another little language?  Might it be better just to
parse the current "Setup" file?  After all, it's got the list of source
files, plus -I, -L, and -l options.  If I extend it to allow -D and -U
options, then interpret all that in a compiler/platform-neutral way,
that could solve most of the problem.  The .def files are still
troublesome, but Marc-Andre just posted to the distutils-sig that they
may not be needed anymore.  Not sure of the details.

> The implementation can be to create the data structure in question and
> invoke your existing software,
> so I'm not talking about starting over.

Exactly -- that's why I'm making the current code public; the front-end
may change, but the guts are reasonably solid at this point.

        Greg
--
Greg Ward - software developer                    gward@cnri.reston.va.us
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