[Distutils] Making pip and PyPI work with conda packages

[Paul Moore]

On 16 May 2015 at 20:04, David Mertz <dmertz at continuum.io> wrote:
> What would be better as a user experience would be to let users do this:
>
>   % pip install --upgrade pip
>   % pip install some_conda_package
>
> Whether that second command ultimately downloads code from pyip.python.org
> or from repo.continuum.io is probably less important for a user experience
> perspective.  Continuum is very happy to upload all of our conda packages to
> PyPI if this would improve this user experience.  Obviously, the idea here
> would be that the user would be able to type 'pip list' and friends
> afterward, and have knowledge of what was installed, even as conda packages.
>
> I'm hoping members of the SIG can help me understand both the technical and
> social obstacles that need to be overcome before this can happen.

My immediate thought is, what obstacles stand in the way of a "conda
to wheel" conversion utility? With such a utility, a wholesale
conversion of conda packages to wheels, along with hosting those
wheels somewhere (binstar? PyPI isn't immediately possible as only
package owners can upload files), would essentially give this
capability.

There presumably are issues with this approach (maybe technical, more
likely social) but it seems to me that understanding *why* this
approach doesn't work would be a good first step towards identifying
an actual solution.

Paul