[Numpy-discussion] Numarray: minor feature requests (setup.py and version info)

[Eric Maryniak]

Dear crunchers,

Please excuse me for dropping a feature request here
as I'm new to the list and don't have the 'feel' of
this list yet.
Should feature requests be submitted to the bug tracker?
Anyways, I installed Numarray on a SuSE/Linux box,
following the Numarray PDF manual's directions.
Having installed Python packages (like, ehm, Numeric)
before, here are a few impressions:

1. When running 'python setup.py' and 'python setup.py --help'
   I was surprised to see that already source generation
   took place:

Using EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS = []
generating new version of Src/_convmodule.c
...
generating new version of Src/_ufuncComplex64module.c

   Normally, you would expect that at build/install time.

2. Because I'm running two versions of Python (because Zope
   and a lot of Zope/C products depend on a particular version)
   the 'development' Python is installed in /usr/local/bin
   (whereas SuSE's python is in /usr/bin).
   It probably wouldn't do any harm if the manual would include
   a hint at the '--prefix' option and mention an alternative
   Python installation like:

       /usr/local/bin/python ./setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local

3. After installation, I usually test the success of a library's
   import by looking at version info (especially with multiple
   installations, see [2]). However, numarray does not seem to
   have version info? :

# python
Python 2.2.1 (#1, Jun 25 2002, 20:45:02)
[GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> sys.version
'2.2.1 (#1, Jun 25 2002, 20:45:02) \n[GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)]'
>>> sys.version_info
(2, 2, 1, 'final', 0)

>>> import Numeric
>>> Numeric.__version__
'21.3'

>>> import numarray
>>> numarray.__version__
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute '__version__'
>>> numarray.version
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'version'

   The __doc__ string:
       'numarray: The big enchilada numeric module\n\n
        $Id: numarray.py,v 1.36 2002/06/17 14:00:20 jaytmiller Exp $\n'
   does not seem to give a hint at the version (i.c. 0.3.4), either.

Well, enough nitpicking for now I guess.
Thanks to the Numarray developers for this project,
it's much appreciated.

Bye-bye,

Eric
-- 
Eric Maryniak <e.maryniak at pobox.com>
WWW homepage: http://pobox.com/~e.maryniak/
Mobile phone: +31 6 52047532, or (06) 520 475 32 in NL.

An error in the premise will appear in the conclusion.