[AstroPy] POLL: vision for a common Astronomy package

[Nico Nell]

I'd just like to make a small clarification for people that don't
understand what the linux package managers are doing.

The package manager is just executing a build script put together by a
maintainer. It generally executes something along the lines of python
setup.py <options..>. This script then handles dependencies,
conflicts, paths, upgrades, etc. So the idea that package managers are
supported in no way excludes a manual install. If anything it pretty
much implies that a manual install method is available in the source
tarball.

The idea of supporting package managers for various operating systems
is a step above the manual method. It's just the idea of trying to
make it easy for a wide variety of users to get the software. So don't
worry, there  pretty much always has to be a manual install method.

~Nico

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Jonathan Slavin
<jslavin at cfa.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
>> I think, "standard" for a user meas always "use the package management
>> provided with the system": this is what the user is familar with,
>> especially on Linux.
>
> That's only true if you have root privileges -- which not all of us
> have.  At home I use the package management system (rpm/yum) but at work
> that's not an option.  I have been using "python setup.py install
> --user" method, which installs under ~/.local/lib/python/site-packages/,
> though I have heard about different (perhaps more robust) approaches.
> In any case, I think we should have an install option available for
> non-root users.
>
> Jon
>
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