[SciPy-dev] scipy_distutils/*_info.py files

[Fernando Pérez]

> It is not a very important matter but may be somebody (Eric ?) had a
> vision on this (unified specification,etc) that we should try to follow.

Why not have a generic SystemInfo class which all instantiate?
Something like (bare  pseudocode):

class SystemInfo:
      def __init__(self,what_I_need_to_find):
      ...

      def get_info(self):
          ....
          return dict_with_info


Then you could do:

x11_info = SystemInfo(lib = 'X11',...)
atlas_info = SystemInfo(lib = 'atlas',...)

and so on. I know this is the barest, roughest of sketches. But hopefully my
point is clear. The advantage of this would be to have a unified interface
both for specifying what one is looking for (files, directories, libraries,
versions, etc.) and for the format of the output.

I think it would be worth doing it that way as knowing what's installed in a
system is a fairly common and generic problem.

Cheers,

f.