[Distutils] Optional C extensions and setuptools

[Bob Ippolito]

On 3/18/07, Christopher Armstrong <radix at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
> On 3/18/07, Bob Ippolito <bob at redivi.com> wrote:
> > I've just added a small optional C extension to simplejson to speed up
> > decoding, but I have a feeling that it's going to cause problems for
> > Windows users.
> >
> > Right now it's specified as setuptools Feature the same way that
> > PyProtocols' speedups module is implemented.
> >
> > Is there something I can do in the setup.py to fail gracefully and
> > install anyways if it can't compile the extension? In some way that's
> > compatible with easy_install?
>
> Twisted does this: it subclasses build_ext and overrides
> build_extensions to check if there's a C compiler before upcalling.
>

I see. Took me a while to find it in that mess, but it looks like that
might work if necessary.

Anyone have something that does it a little more directly?

-bob