
Python Packages and Environments with Conda - ivoflipse
http://www.continuum.io/blog/conda
======
aidos
I'm not knowledgable enough on the whole package thing to comment on how good
this solution is but it looks appealing to me.

I've suffered with pip doing almost everything I need but then struggling to
install scipy etc. Any competitor to the space that can alleviate the pain is
most welcome.

I know Armin had a rant about this last year [0]. Would love to hear thoughts
by people that understand this far better than me.

[0] <http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2012/6/22/hate-hate-hate-everywhere/>

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phren0logy
I, too, have been bitten by python packaging. The clarity that conda provides
about what it is doing, and what goes where, is a big improvement over the
current soup of easy-install and (to a lesser extent) pip.

That said, I'd still rather have a leiningen equivalent.

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rdtsc
Is this related to Anaconda (the OS installer on RHEL, CentOS, and
derivatives?). I couldn't tell if it is. If it is not please consider not
calling it Anaconda.

It is even more confusing because Anaconda is concerned with installing OS
packages, configuration and initialization.

I can see this dialog happening:

\-- Have you updated the package in Anaconda?

\-- Yes. It installs the numpy package.

\-- Ok cool. Make sure it also configures your yum repos.

\-- What yum repos?

\-- You know rpms repos?

\-- There are no rpms in Anaconda?

~~~
ominous_prime
> \-- Have you updated the package in Anaconda?

While I agree that anaconda may be an inappropriate name, since it has been
the Redhat, Fedora, RHEL installer for, I don't know, maybe 13 years, this
isn't really a concern. You don't "update a package in Anaconda". You don't
even interact with it ever again once installation is completed, and most lay-
users would never know what anaconda is unless they pay attention to the fine
print during install.

~~~
rdtsc
Unless you create and customize kick-start script for VMs for example. Which
is what I do often. Then, yes you do update a package in Anaconda by adding it
to the packages section.

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pm90
Why can't modules[0] be used for managing different versions?

[0]<http://modules.sourceforge.net/>

~~~
dschep
I always found managing Python modules using modules to be awkward. Using it
to activate entire virtualenvs might work better. Though that's only worth it
if you're already deploying a modules environment.

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pekk
pip works great. The entire problem has been that easy_install and setuptools
will not get out of the way. They would not fix their screwups for a long
time. Now they have been broken long enough that it doesn't matter if they did
fix up. THE problem with packaging in Python is too many package managers.
Please stop!

~~~
olympus
I agree. None of these myriad package managers does anything that pip doesn't
do. Virtualenv + pip still can't be beat.

~~~
jzwinck
Can't the same be said of yum or apt or whatever system facilities? I used
Python for a couple years with many third party packages and RPMs worked fine.
Why does each scripting language need its own package manager? It's madness.
They all have the same fundamental needs, don't they?

~~~
olympus
I'd like to just use apt, it won't work for me. At least with Python, pip
easily integrates virtualenv, which isn't true of yum or apt as far as I know.
Plus, python devs can package once for pip and have it work on any system,
without having to package separate deb, rpm, txz, etc. This strikes the
balance of having too many package managers for devs to support and having too
many package managers for me to use. I've made my peace with a single package
manager per language plus apt for my OS.

