[matplotlib-devel] Adding optional setuptools to setup.py

[Gael V. <gae...@no...>]

Hi,

I just sent a similar e-mail to the ipython-def mailing list:
I am not a big proponent of setuptools, but I must admit they have really
nice feature for developpers: "python setup.py develop", which does the
Python equivalent of a symlink during the install so that it uses the
source code from the check out to run.

I would like to add these lines to the setup.py:

"""
try:
    from setuptools import setup, find_packages
except ImportError:
    pass
"""

I cannot see waht harm this can do, and I can see the benefit: I install
an svn checkout of MPL with:

"""
sudo python setup.py develop --prefix /usr/local
"""

and then maintain this check out by doing "svn up", and this even in
windows.

What do you think?

Gaël