Re: __file__ is a disease

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org> writes:

> Going back to the topic, please try using autoconf, waf or even cmake to
> distribute your modules. These tools were designed to abstract things
> like filesystem locations and to generate everything needed at
> installation time.

The focus of autoconf and CMake, though, is on managing the complexity
of building packages that require compilation and linking, and much of
that resulting complexity is wasted for installing a pure Python
package.

I wasn't aware of Waf <URL:http://code.google.com/p/waf/>; it looks more
suitable, thank you.

> Python-specific tools like setuptools are not able to do that, not
> unless you bundle specific scripts with your packages.

Yes, I agree the Python-specific build systems (Distutils, Setuptools,
maybe Distribute) are not yet able to perform the necessary module
abstractions. After many years of stagnation there has, in 2009, been
some encouraging progress in maintenance and discussions. We'll see
whether those tools improve this year.

Meanwhile, the OP might like to look at the list of Python tools at
<URL:http://wiki.python.org/moin/ConfigurationAndBuildTools> for this
purpose.

-- 
 \          “What I have to do is see, at any rate, that I do not lend |
  `\      myself to the wrong which I condemn.” —Henry Thoreau, _Civil |
_o__)                                                    Disobedience_ |
Ben Finney