[AstroPy] AstroPy Digest, Vol 47, Issue 6

[Eli Bressert]

The interest in centralizing astronomy related Python modules has
picked up a big interest on this mailing list. As a developer for ATpy
and APLpy (co-developed with Thomas Robitaille and help from Adam
Ginsburg), I like having the freedom or "vision" of which direction my
packages will go. This appears to be what other developers prefer as
well. The easiest or maybe most viable solution is a meta-package
Python astrolibary. This goes along the lines of what Erik Tollerud
suggested. It would be great to have the ability to type in
'easy_install astrolib' or 'pip astrolib' and have all the necessary
packages installed.

What may compliment the comprehensive easy_install idea is a website
that allows users to select which packages they want from a list (e.g.
http://www.astropython.org/resources). Then click a button that would
generate a personalized package installer for easy_install. The user
would copy a generated link and use easy_install as follows:

'easy_install http://astrolib-generator.org/unique-key/random_name.tar.gz'

The tar.gz file would be small and only contain a dependency list
which installs the user's selected packages. The sub-dependencies
would be taken care of automatically. Making suggested packages, e.g.
optical or X-ray bundles, from the package generator would be
relatively simple in this case.

> AAS splinter meeting, anyone?
+2

Cheers,

Eli Bressert