Request for review: python-basemap (matplotlib toolkit) and python-numarray

[Orion Poplawski]

This is an attempt to package the basemap toolkit for matplotlib.

URLs: 
<http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/matplotlib.toolkits.basemap.basemap.html>
http://www.cora.nwra.com/~orion/fedora/python-basemap.spec
http://www.cora.nwra.com/~orion/fedora/python-basemap-0.5.2-1.src.rpm

Now, I have some packaging question right away.  The python code is 
installed into %{python_sitearch}/matplotlib/toolkits/basemap/.  The 
trouble is, who should own the %{python_sitearch}/matplotlib/toolkits/ 
directory?  It apparently needs an __init__.py file in it so python can 
search it, but if we have more than one toolkit they will conflict with 
this file.  I'm no python expert so any help would be appreciated.

I'm guessing that it should be owned by the python-matplotlib package. 
If so, what would be the best way to add it to that package and create 
the __init__.py file?

python-numarray

A requirement for python-basemap

Numarray provides array manipulation and computational capabilities 
similar to those found in IDL, Matlab, or Octave. Using numarray, it is 
possible to write many efficient numerical data processing applications 
directly in Python without using any C, C++ or Fortran code (as well as 
doing such analysis interactively within Python or PyRAF). For 
algorithms that are not well suited for efficient computation using 
array facilities it is possible to write C functions (and eventually 
Fortran) that can read and write numarray arrays that can be called from 
Python.

Numarray is a re-implementation of an older Python array module called 
Numeric. In general its interface is very similar. It is mostly backward 
compatible and will be becoming more so in future releases. Numarray 
offers more capability than Numeric but is still behind Numeric in some 
areas:


http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray
http://www.cora.nwra.com/~orion/fedora/python-numarray.spec
http://www.cora.nwra.com/~orion/fedora/python-numarray-1.3.3-1.src.rpm

A question here - there are include files in this package, that perhaps 
need to be put into a -devel package, but all the libraries are .so, and 
presumably need to be in the main package.

-- 
Orion Poplawski
System Administrator                   303-415-9701 x222
Colorado Research Associates/NWRA      FAX: 303-415-9702
3380 Mitchell Lane, Boulder CO 80301   http://www.co-ra.com