[Numpy-discussion] parallel compilation of numpy

[Andrew Straw]

David Cournapeau wrote:
>> * Integration with setuptools and eggs, which enables things like
>> namespace packages.
>>   
> 
> This is not. eggs are not specified, and totally implementation defined.
> I tried some time ago to  add an egg builder to scons, but I gave up.
> And I don't think you can reuse the setuptools code, as everything is
> coupled.

It's an interesting idea to build Python package distributions without 
distutils. For pure Python installables, if all you seek better is 
distutils, the bar seems fairly low. For compiled stuff, it still 
doesn't seem too bad. Of course, it is easy to say this without having 
tried...

So, what do you mean by an "egg", in the context of it being hard to 
produce? An .egg zip file, an .egg directory, and/or a normal distutils 
package with an .egg-info/ sibling? Since .egg-info/  is now part of 
distutils, this should now be specified... or?

[This, though, does point out a conceptual problem with setuptools for 
me -- it does a zillion things some of which I like a lot (e.g. 
installing console scripts and gui scripts, a simple plugin 
architecture) and others I don't care about as long as they don't break 
things for me (e.g. installing multiple version of packages 
side-by-side, a problem which is much more sanely solved by setting 
PYTHONPATH, or its sophisticated cousin, virtualenv). And all of these 
things go by one name "setuptools" and sometimes even "eggs", even 
though people often use those words to discuss totally different 
features. Hence my question above.]

-Andrew