Hi,

If I were telling a new Windows Python user what to do to get started, I would tell them to use easy_install because easy_install will pick up both installers and binary eggs and do the right thing with those and virtualenvs.

pip on Windows is a decent into misery. Giving Windows users reliable instructions on how to set up an appropriate compiler is fraught with peril. Probably most new Python users on Windows have never done C or set up a build environment; they probably don't even know what a compiler is or why they would need one. Even if they do know about compilers, getting the right Visual Studio version(express or otherwise) is a bit of a problem because Python does not use the current version of VS and which version you need changes with Python versions. If you get a working compiler, then you need to track down the C dependencies of the module you are building.

The click installers are going to be a problem if you do any recommendation of virtualenv. The recent (or soon to be released) versions have --no-site-packages as the default and so, the click installers (that will install to global site-packages directory) won't show up without the user explicitly giving whatever the arg is for --with-site-packages when the virtualenv is created.

I heard rumours of plans for pip to support binary packages of some kind on Windows, but I don't know the details or current status of that.

-Chris

On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 7:50 PM, Reinout van Rees <reinout@vanrees.org> wrote:
Hi,

I keep forgetting in discussions that pip doesn't support eggs. Their main usecase is installing binary python eggs on windows, I'd say. I use linux and OSX myself, so my windows experience is limited.

Question: is pip's compile-from-source character a problem on windows? Does everyone use a clicky-click .exe installer for binary packages instead of pip? Is easy_install still more popular?


Note, I'm not talking about installing pure python packages, but more stuff like mapnik, pil, matplotlib and psycopg2: packages that have C bindings.


I'm asking because I'm writing a Django book and I don't want to get clobbered for advising pip when it won't install a mysql or postgres binding without major work. So I'd love some feedback from windows users!


(I'm mostly using buildout myself, but I'm only describing that near the end of my book).


Reinout

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reinout@vanrees.org             http://www.nelen-schuurmans.nl/
"If you're not sure what to do, make something. -- Paul Graham"

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Christopher Lambacher
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