[Numpy-discussion] OS X binaries for releases

[Chris Barker - NOAA Federal]

Ralf,

Thanks for doing all this!

> Building binaries for releases is currently quite complex and
> time-consuming.

It sure would be nice to clean that up.

 For OS X we need two different machines, because we still
> provide binaries for OS X 10.5 and PPC machines. I propose to not do this
> anymore. It doesn't mean we completely drop support for 10.5 and PPC, just
> that we don't produce binaries. PPC was phased out in 2006 and OS X 10.6
> came out in 2009, so there can't be a lot of demand for it (and the download
> stats at http://sourceforge.net/projects/numpy/files/NumPy/1.7.1/ confirm
> this).
>
> Furthermore I propose to not provide 2.6 binaries anymore. Downloads of 2.6
> OS X binaries were <5% of the 2.7 ones. We did the same with 2.4 for a long
> time - support it but no binaries.

Adding 2.6 is not a huge deal, but I agree -- what's the point? And it
really is time to drop PPC an 10.5, though I'd be interested to see if
anyone IS still using it.

> So what we'd have left at the moment is only the 64-bit/32-bit universal
> binary for 10.6 and up. What we finally need to add is 3.x OS X binaries. We
> can make an attempt to build these on 10.8 - since we have access to a
> hosted 10.8 Mac Mini it would allow all devs to easily do a release (leaving
> aside the Windows issue). If anyone has tried the 10.6 SDK on 10.8 and knows
> if it actually works, that would be helpful.

haven't tried it yet, but it should be doable -- if a pain and a laudable goal.

> Any concerns, objections?

nope -- good plan.

Note that I am trying to unify some of this binary building -- the
same techniques used for matplotlib and useful for other packages, too
(numpy/scipy for sure), but also PIL, netCDF, who knows what?

I'll post here when I get a little further and there is something for
others to look at and/or contribute to.

-Chris

-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
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Chris.Barker at noaa.gov