[Numpy-discussion] Build questions, atlas, lapack...

[Stephan Tolksdorf]

> ====================================
> atlas_info:
> ( library_dirs = /usr/local/lib:/usr/lib )
> ( paths: /usr/lib/atlas,/usr/lib/sse2 )
>   looking libraries f77blas,cblas,atlas in /usr/local/lib but found None
>   looking libraries f77blas,cblas,atlas in /usr/local/lib but found None
(.. more of these...)

Some of these and similar spurious warnings can be eliminated by 
replacing the calls to check_libs in system_info.py with calls to 
check_libs2. Currently these warnings are generated for each file 
extension that is tested (".so", ".a"...) Alternatively, the warnings 
could be made more informative.

Many of the other warnings could be eliminated by consolidating the 
various BLAS/LAPACK options.

If anyone is manipulating the build system, could he please apply the 
patch from #114 fixing the Windows build?

> I tried to fix it, but the call sequence in that code is convoluted
> enough that after a few 'import traceback;traceback.print_stack()'
> tries I sort of gave up.  That code is rather (how can I say this
> nicely) pasta-like :), and thoroughly uncommented, so I'm afraid I
> won't be able to contribute a cleanup here.

Even if you spent enough time to understand the existing code, you 
probably wouldn't have a chance to clean up the code because any small 
change could break some obscure platform/compiler/library combination.
Moreover, changes could break the build of scipy and other libraries 
depending on Numpy-distutils.
If you really wanted to rewrite the build code, you'd need to specify a 
minimum set of supported platform and library combinations, have each of 
them available for testing and deliberately risk breaking any other 
platform.

Regards,
   Stephan