On 12 September 2013 06:52, David Baddeley <david_baddeley@yahoo.com.au>wrote:
I'm wondering if anyone knows of an easy (or relatively easy) way of putting together a scientific python distribution with a one-click installer. I've got a python package with _lots_ of dependencies and would like to give users (with relatively limited computer skills) a simple way of installing python, my package, and all the dependencies. I have previously told people to download EPD, upgrade wxpython, and install a couple of additional packages (which is already pushing it in terms of what the users are comfortable with). The switch to canopy (with the accompanying move to a package management system in which one has to manually select which packages to install) makes this infeasible. The alternative distributions (PythonXY, Anaconda etc ...) are all either 32 bit only, or lack many of the packages I need, meaning that I'd need to get users to download a much longer list of additional packages. I want a python distribution, rather than just a py2exed version as parts of my code don't work well with py2exe.
I've recently put together a template for an NSIS installer for a Python application. Instead of freezing code with py2exe or similar tools, it installs a Python interpreter using an MSI from python.org, and then sets up the application to run with that. It would certainly be possible to extend this to install a set of packages. At the moment, it's quite rough, so I wouldn't call this an easy solution, but it might be "relatively easy" depending on what alternatives you're considering. Thomas