[vtk-developers] Re: VTK Python Installation [was: VTK 5.0 branch in mid-August]

[Brad King]

Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:
> Well, what can I say?  This is excellent news!  Many thanks for
> listening to us patiently and helping so much.  Needless to say, you
> rock! :-)

Thanks.  I hope it works out without too much pain.

>   1. The setup.py currently pulls in the vtkpython/pvtkpython
>      interpreters and installs them into a Python specific place.
>      Should this be done or not?

I don't think they should move.  They are intended to be a vtk-specific 
version of the "python" executable, which is theoretically right next to 
vtkpython in the bin directory of the installation.  Python-specific 
places are for users that run the main python interpreter.

>   2. Under win32, IIRC (this was a long time ago) the interpreters and
>      or modules seem to be built in bin/{'Debug', 'Release',
>      'MinSizeRel', 'RelWithDebInfo'}.  Depending on what the user
>      chooses.  Does LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH/EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH include
>      this or do I have to figure it out looking at what has been
>      chosen.  The current incarnation of setup.py assumes that the
>      dll's are inside LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH and that the interpreters
>      are in EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH or in one of its subdirs.  Is this
>      still true.  Where should I expect the libs and executables?

This is still a problem with the Visual Studio and XCode generators. 
The *_OUTPUT_PATH variables do not include the configuration because all 
configurations can exist in the same build tree at the same time.  The 
Debug/Release/etc. directories are the "configuration name".  When 
running a build the user specifies which configuration to build.  When 
running ctest the user specifies which configuration to test (ctest -C).

When running install the user specifies which configuration to install 
(just like the build since install is a build system target).  The 
installed binaries do not go into any configuration-specific place in 
the install tree.  This leaves 2 options for setup.py:

1.) Have an extra argument that can be used to specify the desired 
configuration.  This must always match the configuration selected for 
the install target.  Therefore you probably should run setup.py 
automatically as a post-install rule during the installation process.

2.) Create an install rule for setup.py itself and have the user run it 
out of the install tree.  It would have to get all its inputs from 
installed locations, though, so this probably isn't a good idea.

>   3. If you are planning on changing the install rules, please ensure
>      that the vtkRenderingPythonTkWidgets.dll/.so goes into a
>      directory on the PATH or in PREFIX/lib.  It does not seem to work
>      reliably otherwise.  I will ignore this file in setup.py.

No problem.

>   4. Does Kitware plan to make a binary installer for VTK-Python under
>      Win32?  If so, which version of Python will this need?  I also
>      humbly request that this build support gl2ps. :)

I don't think this has yet been decided.

-Brad