Policy proposal: spkg-configure.m4 script for all new standard Sage packages

[John H Palmieri]

I have a Sage policy proposal:

- For any new standard Sage package PKG, we strongly recommend, require if at all possible, that the package comes with an spkg-configure.m4 script in build/pkgs/PKG. There should also be a directory build/pkgs/PKG/distros.

Neither the spkg-configure.m4 file nor the distros directory seems to be documented anywhere, so https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/30543 adds documentation for these and also states this new "policy". (It's not really a policy, just a strong recommendation. Some packages are written explicitly for Sage or otherwise won't have good system replacements, so I don't think we should require it.)

If you approve, I would also request that you, as Sage developers, pay attention when you're reviewing tickets. If someone is proposing a new standard package, please keep this policy in mind.

--

John

[Dima Pasechnik]

but this only makes sense for software installable by means of `./configure+make` rather than with `pip`.

 

--

John

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[Matthias Koeppe]

On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 2:44:00 PM UTC-7, Dima Pasechnik wrote:

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 10:40 PM John H Palmieri <jhpalm...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a Sage policy proposal:

- For any new standard Sage package PKG, we strongly recommend, require if at all possible, that the package comes with an spkg-configure.m4 script in build/pkgs/PKG. There should also be a directory build/pkgs/PKG/distros.

Neither the spkg-configure.m4 file nor the distros directory seems to be documented anywhere, so https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/30543 adds documentation for these and also states this new "policy". (It's not really a policy, just a strong recommendation. Some packages are written explicitly for Sage or otherwise won't have good system replacements, so I don't think we should require it.) [...]

+1. Good idea to document this.

 

but this only makes sense for software installable by means of `./configure+make` rather than with `pip`.

It also makes sense for Python packages that are installed using "pip" but merely provide scripts and are not expected to be used within the same Python process as sagelib. Example: tox (added in https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/30416), and the Jupyter notebook (https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/30124).  

(See discussion in the Meta-ticket regarding "spkg-configure", https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/27330).