[Numpy-discussion] CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, appending and overwriting: what should be the behavior of numscons ?

[David Cournapeau]

Hi,

    I would like to know what the UI should be for numscons wrt to 
compilation / link flags. This is an issue which has confused many 
people with distutils, and something we can fix with numscons. Several 
approaches are possible for numscons, but I was wondering about the 
preferred behavior.
    Right now, by default:
    - using CFLAGS will only change debug/warning/optimization flags 
(that is, you can't remove -fPIC with CFLAGS on platforms which need 
it). I understand than totally overwriting the flags should also be 
possible (e.g. the current *distutils* behavior). Is handling new 
compilers the only reason, in which case a better solution is available 
for numscons through scons tools ?
    - using LDFLAGS: I do not use it right now. Is anything needed on 
this front ?

    More generally, since numscons is easier to use now thanks to the 
merge into the numpy trunk, and can work on all major platforms since 
0.4.1 release, I am interested in getting feedback from numpy developers 
as well. Internally, I tried to make as few choices as possible, so it 
should be quite flexible wrt things difficult to handle with distutils.

    thanks,

    David