[AstroPy] Deployment and packaging

[Peter Erwin]

On Jun 15, 2011, at 5:00 PM, Erik Bray wrote:


> Now if there was some desire to work on a Python + numpy + IRAF + 
> SExtractor + ... all encompassing distribution (as I know there is) that 
> *could* also be organized under the AstroPy banner.  But I think it 
> should consist of one or more separate sub-projects, loosely coupled so 
> that the best practices can be followed for different target platforms 
> (i.e. .deb distributions, rpm distributions).  The pure Python part may 
> have certain dependencies, but it should not be targeted for any one 
> specific system layout.
> 


It occurs to me that ESO's scisoft is an example of such an "all encompassing
distribution", and of the problems that can entail. For one thing, the more disparate
things you try to assemble together -- and need to test to make sure they
play well together -- the longer it takes to make a new release, and the slower
the whole release process is. Which means people who rely on such a distribution
are more likely to get stuck with outdated software -- e.g., the current version
of scisoft has Python 2.5.4[*], numpy 1.3.0, and scipy 0.7.

[*] which, at least in Scisoft 7.4, was built without the bz2 module for some weird
reason, even though that's supposed to be part of the standard Python library.

   -- Peter

=============================================================
Peter Erwin                   Max-Planck-Insitute for Extraterrestrial 
erwin at mpe.mpg.de              Physics, Giessenbachstrasse
tel. +49 (0)89 30000 3695     85748 Garching, Germany
fax  +49 (0)89 30000 3495     http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~erwin