PLplot

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:

> [...] Clearly, PYTHON_INC_DIR and PYTHON_NUM_DIR are wrong.  This happens because
> the list of possible include directories is hardcoded in the file sysloc.in.
> Instead of this, we might change the configure logic to check only
> $prefix/include/python$PYTHON_VERSION (and
> /usr/include/python$PYTHON_VERSION).

I much prefer this idea which gives no chance for a version mismatch between
the python executable version and the required header files.

You should also include a failure message that the user needs to install the
python development package with the correct version.

Once you get plplot built for python-2.3, the way to test if it actually
works is to run

$(prefix)/lib/plplot5.2.1/examples/python/pythondemos.py

Please let us know how that test goes.

Alan

* Alan W. Irwin <irwin@...> [2003-08-15 17:16]:

> On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
> 
> > [...] Clearly, PYTHON_INC_DIR and PYTHON_NUM_DIR are wrong.  This happens because
> > the list of possible include directories is hardcoded in the file sysloc.in.
> > Instead of this, we might change the configure logic to check only
> > $prefix/include/python$PYTHON_VERSION (and
> > /usr/include/python$PYTHON_VERSION).
> 
> I much prefer this idea which gives no chance for a version mismatch between
> the python executable version and the required header files.

Same for me.  I will try to implement it.

> You should also include a failure message that the user needs to install the
> python development package with the correct version.

The current version of configure issues a warning message when the header
file is not found:

    warning: can't find Python.h, setting enable_python to no

What do you mean by "failure message"?  Would just an addition to the above
warning message mentioning the need to install the correct development
package be enough?

> Once you get plplot built for python-2.3, the way to test if it actually
> works is to run
> 
> $(prefix)/lib/plplot5.2.1/examples/python/pythondemos.py

Thanks for the reminder.

> Please let us know how that test goes.

I will.

-- 
Rafael

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:

> * Alan W. Irwin <irwin@...> [2003-08-15 17:16]:

> > You should also include a failure message that the user needs to install the
> > python development package with the correct version.
>
> The current version of configure issues a warning message when the header
> file is not found:
>
>     warning: can't find Python.h, setting enable_python to no
>
> What do you mean by "failure message"?

Sorry, I should have said warning message as in this one you just found.

> Would just an addition to the above
> warning message mentioning the need to install the correct development
> package be enough?

That would be great.

Alan

__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: irwin@...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org), the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net), the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net), and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________

* Rafael Laboissiere <laboissiere@...> [2003-08-16 13:36]:

> * Alan W. Irwin <irwin@...> [2003-08-15 17:16]:
> > Please let us know how that test goes.
> 
> I will.

It is done.  You have probably seen my latest CVS comit regarding sysloc.in
and configure.ac, needed to get the Python bindings built with the
python2.3-dev package. I am using these changed files for building the
Debian packages now.

The good news: pythondemos.py worked flawlessly with Python 2.3+ (as in the
python2.3 Debian package).

I will wait until the documentation license issue is fixed to release
version 5.2.1-17 of the Debian packages.

-- 
Rafael

On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:

> The good news: pythondemos.py worked flawlessly with Python 2.3+ (as in the
> python2.3 Debian package).

Excellent.

>
> I will wait until the documentation license issue is fixed to release
> version 5.2.1-17 of the Debian packages.

Since you are putting together a new set of Debian packages, I decided to go
ahead with my one-line fix to the nasty memory management bug in plrender.c.
(See recent commit.) From my off-list contact with Maurice, he may be
working on a better fix at this time which reenables the tcl_cmd option in
both plargs.c and plrender.c, but I thought it was important at this time to
get a fix into cvs for this bug even if it is not the final fix.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: irwin@...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org), the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net), the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net), and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________

* Alan W. Irwin <irwin@...> [2003-08-16 08:54]:

> Since you are putting together a new set of Debian packages, I decided to go
> ahead with my one-line fix to the nasty memory management bug in plrender.c.
> (See recent commit.) From my off-list contact with Maurice, he may be
> working on a better fix at this time which reenables the tcl_cmd option in
> both plargs.c and plrender.c, but I thought it was important at this time to
> get a fix into cvs for this bug even if it is not the final fix.

It would be nice to get this fix into the Debian package.  However, remember
that I have been very conservative as regards the 5.2.1-x packages in
Debian.  I only incorporate changes in CVS that either fix opened bugs
against the packages or are needed for coping with the changing situation of
the unstable distribution (like the recent release of python2.3).

--
Rafael

* Alan W. Irwin <irwin@...> [2003-08-16 06:50]:

> On Sat, 16 Aug 2003, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
> > Would just an addition to the above
> > warning message mentioning the need to install the correct development
> > package be enough?
> 
> That would be great.

Okay, I will add that.

An aside note: we should use AC_MSG_WARN instead of AC_MSG_RESULT to issue
warning messages in configure.ac (and sysloc.in).

-- 
Rafael