[Numpy-discussion] Starting to work on runtime plugin system for plugin (automatic sse optimization, etc...)

[David Cournapeau]

Andreas Klöckner wrote:
>
> Argh. -1 for a hard dependency on dlopen(). 

There is no hard dependency on dlopen, there is a hard dependency on 
runtime loading, because well, that's the point of a plugin system. It 
should not be difficult to be able to disable the plugin system for 
platforms who do not support it, though (and do as today), but I am not 
sure it is really useful.

> At some point in my life, I might 
> be forced to compile numpy on an IBM Bluegene/L, which does *not* have 
> dynamic linking at all. (Btw, anybody done something like this before?)

How will you build numpy in the case of a system without dynamic linking 
? The only solution is then to build numpy and link it statically to the 
python interpreter. Systems without dynamic linking are common (embedded 
systems), though.

cheers,

David