[Distutils] Module Installation Issues

[Chris Barker]

>
> I think Ryan may have typed that command at a Python prompt rather than
>> a system command prompt. Unfortunately the distinction often isn't clear
>> in examples, because the experienced developers writing the instructions
>> are used to guessing which commands are Python and which are system
>> commands.
>>
>
indeed -- not a rare error for newbies.


> One thing I'd quite like to see Python grow is a standard function to
>> install packages from inside Python.
>
>
indeed:

import pip

pip.install('package_name')

would make lots of sense, except:

1) It is going to have to be a different command than the shell command, so
the above confusion would still be an issue.

2) are there any technicals reasons this would fail -- i.e. sys.path would
have to be re-calculated at least -- any other re-initializaton that would
have to be done?

3) permissions could be an issue, you don't necessarily want python to be
running with the permissions to write to it's install dir....

In short -- I like the idea, but I'm not sure it'll really help the newbie
confusion.

-CHB








> In R, the install.packages()
>> function is the default way to get third party packages, and I think
>> staying in one interactive prompt does make things easier for new users
>> to understand.
>>
>
> Ah, I suspect you're right.
>
> I have considered adding a "Python x.y Shell" start menu item that would
> configure PATH properly for commands like "python" and "pip".
> Instinctively, it seems this would be more useful than a direct shortcut to
> the executable, but at the same time I don't want to start competing with
> all the other app-specific shells out there.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>
>
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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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