add SKIP_BUILD flag (#48)

docs/source/development.md

@@ -17,6 +17,14 @@ pip install -U pip uv
 uv pip install -e ".[dev,docs]"
 ```
 
+This will install the package and all dependencies, including building the C++ `bmdscore` shared object which will require a compiler and related dependencies installed and configured for your local setup.
+
+:::{tip}
+
+If you want to skip building `bmdscore` locally, you can set an environment variable `SKIP_BUILD=1` in your python environment; this will allow you to install the package but skip compilation of the shared object.
+
+:::
+
 Tests are written using [pytest](http://doc.pytest.org/en/latest/). To run all tests:
 
 ```bash
@@ -31,7 +39,7 @@ There is a built in Makefile command, ``make dev`` that creates a tmux applicati
 
 ## Priors Report
 
-The pybmds package includes Bayesian priors and frequentist parameter initialization settings that have been tuned to help improve model fit performance. To generate a report of the settings in all the possible permutations, run the command:
+The `pybmds` package includes Bayesian priors and frequentist parameter initialization settings that have been tuned to help improve model fit performance. To generate a report of the settings in all permutations, run the command:
 
 ```bash
 bmds-priors-report priors_report.md

setup.py

@@ -112,7 +112,10 @@ def build_extension(self, ext: CMakeExtension) -> None:
         subprocess.run(["cmake", "--build", ".", *build_args], cwd=build_temp, check=True)
 
 
-setup(
-    ext_modules=[CMakeExtension("pybmds.bmdscore")],
-    cmdclass={"build_ext": CMakeBuild},
-)
+# if SKIP_BUILD exists, don't try to build the C++ code
+build_kw = {}
+if os.environ.get("SKIP_BUILD") is None:
+    build_kw.update(
+        ext_modules=[CMakeExtension("pybmds.bmdscore")], cmdclass={"build_ext": CMakeBuild}
+    )
+setup(**build_kw)