Local mathjax breaks install

[stefanv]

I sometimes run IPython in-place, other times I do a full install.

Once Mathjax has been installed locally in the in-place version, doing "python setup.py install" no longer works:

Extracting ipython-0.12.dev-py3.2.egg to /home/stefan/lib/python3.2/site-packages
  File "/home/stefan/lib/python3.2/site-packages/ipython-0.12.dev-py3.2.egg/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/mathjax/docs/source/conf.py", line 40
    project = u'MathJax'
                       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

The solution may be to explicitly tell setup.py to ignore the local Mathjax cache.

[fperez]

It works fine under python 2.7, but I see in your traceback that you're installing with python 3. What we need to do is unconditionally skip the mathjax docs/ directory, and in most cases mathjax altogether. I say in most cases, because I think in the long run it may actually be useful to provide alternate installers with mathjax bundled in: if people are going to download it later anyway, might as well give it to them right away and save them the hassles. Obviously it should be optional, as it makes the download ~ 100mb larger, but could be very convenient for certain users.

[takluyver]

I'm not quite sure why it's an issue at all. Does running setup try to byte-compile any .py files it finds, even if they're not in a declared package?

[fperez]

Yes, we do run a compileall call ourselves, which is a good idea: it catches syntax errors that may inadvertently slip at the last minute in files deep down in the code. In this case, we simply shouldn't be shipping the sphinx docs for mathjax, ever :)

[takluyver]

OK, that makes sense.