[Distutils] Current to-do list

[Greg Ward]

I've started maintaining my Distutils to-do list again.  In the absence
of a proper bug database or issue tracker, this'll have to do.  Please
add any items I've missed; feel free to claim items for yourself if you
can submit a patch.  If you're already working on a patch, let me know
so I can add you.  If you see your name in a "delegated to" comment but
you are unwilling/unable to do that task, let me know and I'll take you
off.

Here's the list...

GENERAL
-------

* I think fancy_getopt needs to get fancier to properly support the
  -I, -D, -l, -L, etc. options of "build_ext": need to be able
  to accumulate multiple options in a list, should be able to
  split a string on a given delimiter, probably want to specify if
  repetitions of the same option will accumulate or replace, etc.

* do the above options even work at all?  seem to recall hearing
  reports of dismal failure, but I never looked into it
  [knowing how FancyGetopt works, there's no way these options
  can work: damn]

* think about how to support distribution-specific "configure" commands --
  eg. how can they push option values (include/library directories, that
  sort of thing) onto the "build_ext" command?

* should/can the 'finalize_options()' methods be made more robust, so
  you can sensibly call them multiple times?  this might be all that's
  necessary to enable option-pushing...


HELP
----

* interface for "help about some option" -- eg. --help-compiler to
  build_ext would list available compilers; --help-formats to "sdist"
  or "bdist" would list available distribution formats; ...
  [delegated to Rene Liebscher]


DOCS
----

* write write write

* standard blurb for README files



BUILD/INSTALL
-------------



EXTENSION BUILDING
------------------

* review and integrate cygwin patch from Rene Liebscher


DISTRIBUTIONS
-------------

* review/tweak bdist_rpm code from Harry Gebel (minor style issues, fix
  hardcoded directories)

* figure out why bdist_rpm doesn't work with RPM 2.x, and make it work if
  possible


EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES
---------------------

* ??? do we need to implement autoconf in Python (shudder) ???

* if not, how to handle the case of "if Tk present, build with it" in
  PIL, or "define HAVE_STRFTIME if we have strftime()" in mxDateTime"?


-- 
Greg Ward - maladjusted computer geek                   gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life."
    -- Eric Hoffer