[Numpy-discussion] Numarray: minor feature requests (setup.py and version info)

[Perry Greenfield]

Hi Eric,

Todd Miller should answer these but he is away for a few days.
> 
> 1. When running 'python setup.py' and 'python setup.py --help'
>    I was surprised to see that already source generation
>    took place:
> 
> Using EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS = []
> generating new version of Src/_convmodule.c
> ...
> generating new version of Src/_ufuncComplex64module.c
> 
>    Normally, you would expect that at build/install time.
> 
Yes, it looks like it does the code generation regardless of
the option. We should change that.

> 2. Because I'm running two versions of Python (because Zope
>    and a lot of Zope/C products depend on a particular version)
>    the 'development' Python is installed in /usr/local/bin
>    (whereas SuSE's python is in /usr/bin).
>    It probably wouldn't do any harm if the manual would include
>    a hint at the '--prefix' option and mention an alternative
>    Python installation like:
> 
>        /usr/local/bin/python ./setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local
> 
Good idea.

> 3. After installation, I usually test the success of a library's
>    import by looking at version info (especially with multiple
>    installations, see [2]). However, numarray does not seem to
>    have version info? :
> 

> # python
> Python 2.2.1 (#1, Jun 25 2002, 20:45:02)
> [GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> import sys
> >>> sys.version
> '2.2.1 (#1, Jun 25 2002, 20:45:02) \n[GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)]'
> >>> sys.version_info
> (2, 2, 1, 'final', 0)
> 
> >>> import Numeric
> >>> Numeric.__version__
> '21.3'
> 
> >>> import numarray
> >>> numarray.__version__
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute '__version__'
> >>> numarray.version
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'version'
> 
>    The __doc__ string:
>        'numarray: The big enchilada numeric module\n\n
>         $Id: numarray.py,v 1.36 2002/06/17 14:00:20 jaytmiller Exp $\n'
>    does not seem to give a hint at the version (i.c. 0.3.4), either.
> 
Well, I remember putting this on the to do list and thought it
had been done, but obviously not. I'm sure Todd will take care
of these.

Thanks very much for the feedback.

Perry