[vtk-developers] Re: VTKConfig.cmake new values

[David Gobbi]

Brad King wrote:
> David Gobbi wrote:
>> I added two new values to VTKConfig.cmake last week 
>> (VTK_EXECUTABLE_DIRS, VTK_RUNTIME_PATH_VAR_NAME, VTK_PYTHON_DIRS) and 
>> thought that I should get in touch with you and Kitware to make sure 
>> that these additions make sense.
I notice that I haven't yet learned how to count...
> [snip]
>> The name VTK_RUNTIME_DIRS is confusing too: it should have been named 
>> VTK_RUNTIME_LIBRARY_DIRS to make it obvious that it is meant for 
>> libraries, since "runtime" is a vague term.  Is it too late to change 
>> that one?
>
> It was added just before the VTK 5.0 branch was made (or shortly after 
> and was merged).  I'm not attached to the original name.  I'll look 
> into changing it in a somewhat compatible way.
Thanks.  I think that changing the name will help avoid some future user 
confusion.  Anything to help the signal-to-noise ratio on the users 
list... it would also be nice to establish a standard that other Kitware 
projects like ITK could adopt.

>> The VTK_PYTHON_DIRS addition is fairly minor by comparison, it just 
>> contains the directories where the python modules (pure python and 
>> binary) can be found so that it can be used to set the PYTHONPATH.  
>> Another option would be to set a VTK_PYTHON_HOME variable instead, 
>> similar to the VTK_TCL_HOME, and generate Wrapping/Python/vtk.pth so 
>> that it points to where the binary modules. This would make it work 
>> similar to the way pkgIndex.tcl works.  Any opinions on whether the 
>> VTK_PYTHON_HOME approach would be preferable?
>
> Whatever is closer to the python-world convention is probably best.
Good point.  Maybe VTK_PYTHONPATH_DIRS would be more clear than 
VTK_PYTHON_DIRS.  Changing the name to VTK_PYTHON_HOME would have been a 
bad choice on my part, since python defines a  PYTHONHOME variable which 
is completely different from the intended use of VTK_PYTHON_HOME that I 
described above.

>> So I'm hoping that my changes can stay, but I realize that 
>> VTKConfig.cmake is not the kind of file that I should modify just to 
>> suit my own needs.
>
> They look fine to me.

Great.  Thanks for your help.

 - David