[SciPy-dev] distutils, weave dependency of scipy/xplt/Mplot.py

[Arnd Baecker]

Hi,

while tracking down a problem with scipy on the latest
quantian 0.4.9.4 (based on Knoppix)
we came across the following:

A) weave dependency of scipy/xplt/Mplot.py

   In scipy/xplt/Mplot.py the function _getdir()
   uses weave to get a directory that the user
   has write access to.

   So commenting out the line
     weave = ppimport('weave');             _level_docs(weave)
   in scipy/__init__.py
   is not enough to remove any dependency on weave.
   Would it be possible to write a _getdir() which
   does not make use of weave ?

   Presumably this is not that critical, but in the quantian
   case python2.3-dev was not installed which contains distutils.

   This brings me to my second question:

B) It seems that without distutils an `import weave` fails.
   Are distutils really necessary to _use_ weave ?
   (At least for scipy itself distutils seems only
   necessary to run scipy.test())


Best,

Arnd