fortran-using components need to be split out

for alpha-2 we just did remove the build-dependency on lapack and blas. not optimal. nor sure if we can fix it for alpha-3.

splitting out a sub-package is ugly. there are plans to include numpy into the python core, but it looks like these are stalled (http://numpy.scipy.org/array_interface.shtml).

the original request was to get the CD size down, and the only package depending on numpy is pygtk. pygtk does use the multiarray module for two functions (one of them is deprecated): GdkPixbuf.pixel_array and GdkPixbuf.get_pixels_array. Both functions are not used in main, afaics, so it is difficult to see why this interface was added and how it is used.

maybe just raise an ImportError if the module cannot be imported, with the message append "please install python-numpy"?

that means, still b-d on python-numpy to compile in the runtime check, and move the dependency to a suggests or recommends.

This is still an open question for jaunty, but there's nothing that blocks alpha-3 here. Retargetting to alpha-6.

The page at http://numpy.scipy.org/array_interface.shtml is out of date. This work became PEP 3118, and is now part of Python 2.6 and 3.0: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3118/

Also, as far as I know, there are no plans to put Numpy into Python core.

As far as pygtk, once it supports PEP 3118, it's doubtful that it will need to depend on numpy. I guess that's unlikely to happen before Jaunty, however.

This bug was fixed in the package pygtk - 2.13.0-2ubuntu5

---------------
pygtk (2.13.0-2ubuntu5) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Remove the dependency on python-numpy, make it a suggestion. Avoids
    python-numpy on the CD. Nothing in main does use this feature, plus
    an exception at runtime is thrown if the extension cannot be found.
    Packages using this feature must depend on python-numpy explicitely.
    See the bug report for the details. LP: #309215.
  * Build for python2.6.
  * debian/rules (clean): Remove .pyc files.

 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:03:00 +0000

python-gtk2 doesn't depend anymore on python-numpy. The size of numpy is still an issue, but I currently don't see a sane way to make this smaller. Building it twice, once with the included lapack_lite, and with the available libraries, and then diverting, doesn't sound like the right choice.

marking this as 'wontfix' overall for python-numpy, it appears we have a correct solution for pygtk now.