[AstroPy] Deployment and packaging

[Tom Aldcroft]

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 7:01 AM, Éric Depagne <eric at depagne.org> wrote:
>> Is Linux, then, the main problem as far as "easy Python
>> [+numpy/scipy/matplotlib] installations" go?
> To my knowledge of various distributions, installing python/numpy/scipy is
> very easy when running linux, it's just a matter of asking your package
> installer to do so, and here it goes.
> Of course, one has to know that it's done this way, but I suspect that it's
> not the biggest hurdle (maybe I'm wrong, I do not know).
>

This requires root access.  At CfA all the system-managed linux
machines (hundreds) run CentOS-5, which includes Python 2.4 as the
native python.  The RPM installs for numpy / scipy will be ancient
versions.  Using CentOS-5 (as I am forced to do) is a challenge since
the libraries are likewise ancient.  Getting PyGTK to build from
source was a major project in archaeology, trying to guess which
versions of the gtk dependencies would build.

The upshot is that to provide a universally applicable solution
requires a non-root installable distribution.

I think everyone agrees that EPD itself is not acceptable because of
license restrictions.  Probably 2/3 of people at CfA would not qualify
under the academic license, myself included.

- Tom A