[Distutils] Upheaval in build and install commands

[Greg Ward]

Hi all --

anyone keeping up with the Distutils CVS archive may have noticed these
changes, but I thought I should mention them just so everyone's up to
speed.

First, the "install" command is in a state of disrepair.  The
most-recent checkin was an incomplete, unfinished, aborted idea -- only
checked it in for posterity.  Don't even bother trying to use it.

Second, the "build" commands have been undergoing some upheaval.  The
reasons are:

  * put compiler turds (object files, in particular, but also the stuff
    that MSVC leaves behind on linking a DLL) in a temp directory --
    eg. build/temp.linux-i586 on my machine.

  * make the "is this a pure Python distribution or a distribution
    with extensions?" decision at build time rather than install time
    -- the effect of this is that *everything* will build to either
    build/lib or build/lib.<plat>

  * support building extensions right into the source tree, so that
    developers hacking away on an extension don't have to screw around
    with "building" Python modules or mucking with PYTHONPATH (or
    kludging sys.path)

I'm still working on the "build_lib" command, which I think I'm going to
rename to "build_clib", since that's what it does.  (The terminology I'm
gravitating towards is that "lib" means "Python library directory",
"purelib" means "pure Python library directory", and "platlib" means
"platform-specific Python library directory".  Thus it's misleading to
call the command that builds C/C++ libraries "build_lib", since it has
nothing to do with Python libraries.)

But the basic Python building stuff -- pure Python and extensions --
seems to be working.  Check it out and give it a spin if you're feeling
brave.  Maybe tomorrow at work I'll actually test it on a platform other 
than Linux.  ;-)

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - Unix bigot                                  gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
"When I hear the word `culture', I reach for my gun." --Goebbels
"When I hear the word `Microsoft', *I* reach for *my* gun." --me