There may be a setuptools solution here, but if there is, I'm not the one to know ;) matplotlib is for the most part ignorant of setuptools, and it's probably reasonable to keep it that way.
Anyway, since the mathtex setup infrastructure is based on what matplotlib was already doing, there's a common convention we can exploit. Essentially, the matplotlib setup.py builds up a list of extension modules (ext_modules) and packages and then passes those lists to distutils for building. So, in theory, all mathtex needs to do is provide a function that will add extension modules and packages to those lists (basically like all of the build_* methods in setupext.py). So basically, matplotlib's setup.py would import lib/mathtex/setupext.py (by filename) and call a method in it. Lots of details I'm missing, but that should provide a general framework. Another issue this raises is whether to build the FT2Font and png modules twice, once as part of matplotlib, and once as part of mathtex. Once mathtex is a truly external dependency for matplotlib, I don't see a way around this, so maybe we should just pretend we're already there, despite the duplication. If we want to be clever, I could see mathtex being smart about imports: try importing its local copies of its libraries and failing that import matplotlib's. I'm not entirely sure about that idea, but I sort of feel "hacky-if-you-do, hacky-if-you-don't" here ;) I see the code maintenance problem of this duplication (i.e. making sure bugfixes to FT2Font make it into matplotlib and mathtex) almost as a separate issue. We know the solution to that: break out the freetype wrappers into its own project (which then both matplotlib and mathtex would rely on) -- but that's probably outside of the scope of this GSoC project. Please try to use svn:externals if you can -- that will make pulling updates from mathtex easier. I've never used it cross-repository like this, so there may be unforeseen issues. It also just occurred to me that we might want to take another step in preparation for mathtex as an external dependency: make it optional. That is, if importing mathtex fails, be able to render regular text, and warn if trying to render math text. Mike Freddie Witherden wrote: > Hi all, > > With the integration of mathtex into matplotlib nearing completion > (just bug fixes really) I think now is a good time to be considering > the best way to include mathtex into matplotlib. > > This has already been discussed on the mathtex mailing list, with > Michael proposing a few ways of doing this. However, I am not an > expert by any means when it comes to Python set-up/configuring. (As > anyone who has looked at setup.py in mathtex will have seen.) > > While including the source is not difficult (it can be done directly > or using svn:external) getting it built/configured is. Lets say that > mathtex was dumped into lib/, how would one go about configuring and > installing it from setup.py in matplotlib. > > Although I am sure that just executing a shell command would do it I > am sure there must be a 'better' option for this type of 'package > chaining'. > > Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations? > > Regards, Freddie. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Matplotlib-devel mailing list > Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel > -- Michael Droettboom Science Software Branch Operations and Engineering Division Space Telescope Science Institute Operated by AURA for NASA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
