[Python-Dev] python/dist/src setup.py,1.52,1.53

[Guido van Rossum]

> However, I dislike the frequent usage of platform in setup.py, where
> this patch adds another instance of. I believe the autoconf approach
> "test for features, not system names" is much more flexible. If the
> curses module requires certain feature, find a way of testing whether
> the features are present, and only compile _curses if they are. Then
> it would not be necessary to check whether the system name is
> "darwin1". This is problematic in particular as different spellings of
> the platform are expected: It is "darwin1" in some places, and
> "Darwin1.2" atleast in another place.

Does distutils have a way to grep a .h file for a certain string?  I'm
sure that we could come up with a suitable string to check for (a
function or macro defined in recent curses versions but not in old
curses versions); but I'd hate to have to write the test by hand.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)