[Distutils] pip on windows: life without eggs ok?

[Carl Meyer]

Hi Chris,

On 04/15/2012 09:07 PM, Chris Lambacher wrote:
> If I were telling a new Windows Python user what to do to get started, I
> would tell them to use easy_install because easy_install will pick up
> both installers and binary eggs and do the right thing with those and
> virtualenvs.

Agreed.

> pip on Windows is a decent into misery. Giving Windows users reliable
> instructions on how to set up an appropriate compiler is fraught with
> peril. Probably most new Python users on Windows have never done C or
> set up a build environment; they probably don't even know what a
> compiler is or why they would need one. Even if they do know about
> compilers, getting the right Visual Studio version(express or otherwise)
> is a bit of a problem because Python does not use the current version of
> VS and which version you need changes with Python versions. If you get a
> working compiler, then you need to track down the C dependencies of the
> module you are building.
> 
> The click installers are going to be a problem if you do any
> recommendation of virtualenv. The recent (or soon to be released)
> versions have --no-site-packages as the default and so, the click
> installers (that will install to global site-packages directory) won't
> show up without the user explicitly giving whatever the arg is for
> --with-site-packages when the virtualenv is created.

The argument is spelled --system-site-packages.

> I heard rumours of plans for pip to support binary packages of some kind
> on Windows, but I don't know the details or current status of that.

Support for installing binary packages on Windows has been a "patches
welcome" situation for as long as I've used pip (3-4 years?) - all
that's lacking is someone motivated to provide a good patch :-)

Carl

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