[SciPy-dev] wgnuplot.exe dependency in 0.3.2

[Pearu Peterson]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004, Joe Cooper wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on the next revision of Enthon today, and it looks like 
> wgnuplot.exe has been introduced as a dependency of SciPy on Windows without 
> being documented anywhere.  Someone else ran into this last month, but there 
> were no responses.
>
> Here's the error:
>
> running install_data
> error: can't copy 'Lib\gplt\wgnuplot.exe': doesn't exist or not a regular 
> file
>
> A cursory glance at the setup code tells me that wgnuplot.exe doesn't have to 
> be in Lib\ but it does have to exist in one of the other locations distutils 
> is searching.
>
> Can I get a clarification on whether adding this dependency was intentional? 
> I'd like to add it to the build instructions for Windows, if it will remain a 
> dependency.

Unless windows users will speak up loudly, I would remove wgnuplot.exe 
from scipy CVS repository. A source code repository is a wrong place to 
save binary programs, especially if they are platform dependent.

> I'm happy to add it to Enthon, if it provides additional functionality that 
> people are using, but I don't want to unnecessarily complicate the package 
> with dozens of competing tools (it's already 90MB in size in the last 
> version, and there's at least 10MB worth of new packages going into the next 
> version, and no significant removals).

gplt requires gnuplot. So, if windows users use gplt, wgnuplot.exe should 
be added to Enthon.

Pearu