[Python-ideas] Looking for input to help with the pip situation

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Sun, 12 Nov 2017 23:18:26 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> We haven't forgotten our early years - we've just spent years (both
> individually and collectively) working on the problem of helping
> people get started with software development, and thus have a very
> good idea as to what *doesn't* work, as well as what *does* work.
> 
> The latter list is currently fairly short:
> 
> * having a friend or colleague walk them through it
> * "Install Parties", like those Django Girls runs (i.e. running a
> pre-tutorial event, specifically focused on getting a working
> environment set up)
> * highly prescriptive learning environments, whether online ones (like
> Grok Learning, trinket.io, PythonAnywhere, etc), or locally installed
> ones (like PyCharm Educational Edition, the Anaconda distribution,
> etc)

Not wanting to nitpick, but I don't think the Anaconda distribution is
"highly prescriptive".  It's a software distribution with scientific
computing as its main focus, but perfectly usable for ordinary Python
programming.  It's not more prescriptive than Debian, which by its
philosophy is directed primarily towards sysadmin crowds but also used
by some people on their personal desktops.

Also, you can create custom Anaconda-like distributions to provide the
desired environment to your students in an executable installer (*).
I'm not sure how usable that option is, but it definitely exists, is
open source and cross-platform.

(*) https://github.com/conda/constructor

Regards

Antoine.