Re: [Gnuplot-py-users] suggestion

[Flavio C. <fcc...@gm...>]

Hi Benny,

regarding the zipped egg, It can be avoided by setting the zip_safe
argument  to False. However, since distutils.core setup function does not
support this argument, we will need to have two calls to setup functions
depending on the availability of setuptools, as in the example attached
(Warning: Untested!).

However, an even better solution solution to the handle personal
configuration would be to have an configuration file in the users home
directory which would be read and parsed by Gnuplot.py whenever it is
imported (using the configparser module)

cheers,

Flávio

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 8:52 AM, Benny Malengier
<ben...@gm...>wrote:

>
>
> 2010/5/2 Flavio Coelho <fcc...@gm...>
>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 12:53 PM, Benny Malengier <
>> ben...@gm...> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2010/5/2 Flavio Coelho <fcc...@gm...>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 9:41 AM, Benny Malengier <
>>>> ben...@gm...> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 2010/4/26 Flavio Coelho <fcc...@gm...>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I use Gnuplot.py in some of my projects, and would like to thank
>>>>>> Michael for such a useful package.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> One of my projects, Liveplots[1], depends on Gnuplot.py, and uses
>>>>>> setuptools (easy_install)[2] as its main mode of distribution. It would be
>>>>>> very convenient for me, and possibly for other Gnuplot.py users, that is
>>>>>> could also be installed by means of the easy_install command. This is
>>>>>> important because other projects which want to declare Gnuplot.py as a
>>>>>> dependency can do so by listing it in their setup.py and have it be
>>>>>> installed automatically.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To enable this, all that is required is to edit one line in the
>>>>>> setup.py:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> where it reads "from distutils.core import setup"  it should read:
>>>>>> "from setuptools import setup". After this, running "python setup.py sdist.
>>>>>> register upload", will add Gnuplot.py to Python Package Index and make it
>>>>>> easy_installable for users with setuptools installed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I should also point out, that this edit will not affect in any way how
>>>>>> Gnuplot.py is currently used and installed, just add a new way to install
>>>>>> it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> This seems easy, but is it the correct way forward? I did not follow
>>>>> all the dirt being thrown around with respect to building/installing python
>>>>> pacages. I know there is a lot of controversies.
>>>>> However, distutils remains supported in python core
>>>>> http://docs.python.org/distutils/index.html#distutils-index
>>>>>
>>>>> so it is a part of python 3. People still seem to use it and advocate
>>>>> it (eg http://diveintopython3.org/packaging.html ).
>>>>>
>>>>> So, why not use the core packages? If we go with setuptools, we could
>>>>> also take pip or distribute...
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have followed some of the discussion regarding the fork of Distribute
>>>> from setuptools, and the issues at the core where about how to make the
>>>> package evolve towards being included in the standard library, not about its
>>>> usefulness. Neither Setuptools or Distribute mean to replace distutils but
>>>> to extend it. Making a setup.py compatible with setuptools or Distribute,
>>>> does not affect the "python setup.py install" way of installing packages of
>>>> distutils. But it allows for packages to declare a dependency tree of
>>>> packages, which is not available in plain distutils.
>>>>
>>>> Moreover, most heavily used python packages have been using setuptools
>>>> for years. So the bottom line is that adopting setuptools costs just a
>>>> couple of line edits in setup.py while being  completely transparent to
>>>> users accustomed to distutils. There's much to gain and nothing to loose.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> So I assume you mean that gnuplot could use a  try except block for this
>>> import, or would you aim at making setuptools a dependency?
>>>
>>
>> Actually, setuptools has a bootstrap script  (ez_setup.py) which will
>> download and install setuptools if it is not installed. But a try/except
>> might also be a good idea since it wouldn't require any extra installation
>> for those who download the source tarball manually. As for the ones
>> installing via easy_install either directly or as a dependency this is not a
>> problem since they've got to have setuptools installed to begin with.
>>
>>>
>>> What is actually the standard about running
>>>
>>> python setup.py sdist. register upload
>>> The main developer should do it? Problem is a bit that Michael still
>>> replies mails to mailing list from time to time, but there is at the time
>>> nobody with the time to actually hack at Gnuplot.py.
>>>
>>
>> Anyone could do the "...sdist register upload", but  ideally it should be
>> someone who is also involved with the official releases of Gnuplot.py so
>> that the PyPI package is kept up-to-date. The person which uploads the
>> initial package becomes the manager of the package in PyPI via their  login
>> and password.
>>
>>
>>> If you build on top of gnuplot, you might be interested in exposing some
>>> of the new capabilities of gnuplot in the Gnuplot.py API?
>>> It is great that we have the API to directly pass gnuplot commands, but
>>> it does mean not many people are interested in expanding the API.
>>>
>>
>> I have looked at the code of Gnuplot.py and found it to be very readable
>> and easy to understand. So if I find the time to improve it, I'll certainly
>> post a patch to this list for review.
>>
>>>
>>> I don't mind doing this change in the code myself, I use an extension to
>>> setuptools for one of my own projects, but I'd like Michael to agree with it
>>> before adding it, as I have only done some very small contributions up to
>>> now.
>>>
>>
>> I think that the best way to go too.
>>
>
> Ok, I tried it locally.
> I have one issue only. There are some defaults in eg Gnuplot/gp_unix.py and
> friends users might want to change.
>
> Using setuptools this installs as a zipped egg file however. Is there an
> easy way to edit the installed egg? Or does it mean like this users must
> install from source to be able to change a default setting? It seems like
> that to me.
>
> I can work around it myself with
>
> sudo python setup.py install --single-version-externally-managed
> --install-layout=deb --root /
>
> and packagers for ubuntu/... can use that instead of an egg, but people
> using easy-install are stuck with our defaults it seems.
>
> Benny
>
>
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Flávio
>>
>>>
>>> Benny
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Flávio
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Flávio Codeço Coelho
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Flávio Codeço Coelho
>>
>>
>


-- 
Flávio Codeço Coelho