catch ImportError in setup.py

2 files changed, 12 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 2bbb9ca..1035775 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -11,4 +11,3 @@ install:
 script:
  - python setup.py build_ext --inplace
  - nosetests
-
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a9f40bd..fc8d0d2 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,16 +2,23 @@
 
 Handles the compilation of pyx source files
 
+run as:
+python setup.py build_ext --inplace
+
 Copyright 2014, Mario Mulansky <mario.mulansky@gmx.net>
 
 Distributed under the BSD License
 
 """
 from distutils.core import setup
-from Cython.Build import cythonize
 import numpy
 
-setup(
-    ext_modules=cythonize("pyspike/*.pyx"),
-    include_dirs=[numpy.get_include()]
-)
+try:
+    from Cython.Build import cythonize
+    setup(
+        ext_modules=cythonize("pyspike/*.pyx"),
+        include_dirs=[numpy.get_include()]
+    )
+except ImportError:
+    print("Error: Cython is not installed! You will only be able to use the \
+much slower Python backend in PySpike.")