[Distutils] Hacks and bugs for distutilizing wxPython

[Robin Dunn]

> > 2. My secondary extensions need to link with the import lib produced
from
> > building the first extension.  The default location of this file is
dynamic
> > based on the python version, debug status, and also the relative path to
the
> > first source file.  Since there was no reliable way to determine before
> > setup() was called where that directory would be I hacked it to just use
a
> > fixed location for the implib (build\ilib\).
>
> Still pondering this one.  Wherever we put it, the directory name will
> be unpredictable and not known until run-time, because all directories
> in "build/" with platform-specifc files are named after the platform.
>
> One idea: allow expansion of "configuration variables" in more values in
> the setup script.

I like this.  Another idea would be to automatically add the directory to
the library_dirs of subsequent Extension objects, although I suppose that
could be even more dangerous than variable expansion.


>
> > Related to this, if a full path is given to a source file, then the
object
> > will be put in the same directory as the source.  I think object files
> > should always be put under the build dir.
>
> By "full path" do you mean "absolute path",

Yes.

> I can't think of any good reason to put absolute paths in your
> setup script; it destroys portability even to another machine (much less
> another OS), so it's not something I ever even considered supporting.
> Why do you need it?

The path came from an environment variable that was concatenated with some
source file names.

> > 6. Why is -g used by the compiler when --debug is not given to
distutils?
>
> Because it's what's in Python's Makefile.  Hmmm... here's how it works
> right now: if 'debug' is true (ie. --debug is given on the build_ext or
> build_clib command line), then UnixCCompiler inserts "-g" into the
> argument list.  But it does nothing if 'debug' is false.  Perhaps it
> should explicitly remove "-g".  That feels wrong to me, though: if you
> built your Python with -g, then surely you mean to build extensions with
> -g?
>

I think it should remove it.  With the distutils philosophy, if I want debug
info I ask for it.  If I want to distribute a lean and mean binary then the
absense of --debug should mean the absense of debug info, after all, the
flag is not called --no-gol-dang-debug-info-please.  IMHO, Python's
configure has the wrong default.  It's not often that I feel the need to
trace into Python sources, even when I'm developing extensions.  For the 98%
of the Python installations out there that are not developing extensions or
hacking on Python itself there is definitly no need.   I think it should
have an --enable-debug flag that is off by default.  But I digress...


>
> You'll be glad to know that LDSHARED on Solaris is fixed in Python 1.6
> and later -- I patched configure.in to handle that.

Yep, I noticed that when I built 2.0.


--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman
robin@AllDunn.com
http://wxPython.org     Java give you jitters?
http://wxPROs.com        Relax with wxPython!