ScattPy is a scikits package providing numerical methods of solving light scattering by non-spherical particles.

Installation from sources

In the directory scattpy (the same as the file you are reading now), just do:

python setup.py install

Distribution

A scikit can be distributed by different means:

Source distribution

To prepare a source distribution of the package:

    python setup.py sdist

Eggs

Eggs are a format for easy distribution of packages. It is cross platform for packages without any C code, and platform specific otherwise. To build an egg:

Binary installers

Binary installers are platform specific. On Windows, you can do:

    python setup.py bdist_wininst

On Mac OS X (this requires an extension, bdist_mpkg, available on Pypi)

    python setup.py bdist_mpkg

Pypi

Any scikits can also be registered to pypi, for source and eventually binary installer hosting. To register a package, and upload the sources at the same time:

    python setup.py register sdist upload

This will register the package to pypi, prepare a tarball of the package, and upload it to pypi. You can also upload the files manually to pypi webpage.

Other distributions can be uploaded to pypi. For example:

    python setup.py bdist_egg upload

Once an egge is uploaded to scipy, people can simply install it with easy_install:

    easy_install scikits.example

If you don't want to install as an egg, but from the sources:

    easy_install -eNb example scikits.example

Will download the most recent sources, and extract them into the example directory.