[pymvpa] Why no PyPI?

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013, Ben Acland wrote:
> Howdy folks. This is my first post, and it's a dumb one, so I'll keep it short:

> Why haven't you submitted PyMVPA to PyPI yet? I'm guessing it's something you've considered - sorry if this is a redundant question. But it would make using PyMVPA along with virtualenv a lot easier across platforms. Some tweaks to setup.py to add the dependency list, and hey-presto. Or... that's how it seems.

no -- that probably just "would be it"... but it would also bring more
work for us to support those trying to install it via pypi and running
into problems while actually using PyMVPA:  we do have few extensions to
build (libsvm, smlr), and for the better use other optional dependencies
better be available -- look at
https://github.com/PyMVPA/PyMVPA/blob/master/mvpa2/base/externals.py#L492
for the list of them.  We do have a somewhat extensive testing to
guarantee that PyMVPA would still function nicely just with limited
functionality when those optional dependencies are present, but those
installations might feel crippled.  So we are primarily orienting
ourselves for deployments on platforms with somewhat a guaranteed
coverage of those dependencies and sane upgrade/bug reporting
procedures, e.g.  Debian-based (with our own NeuroDebian layer on top
;-) ), where we have a much better handle of things.  Also serves us a
good reason to promote use of the NeuroDebian VM for people on OSX and
Windows boxes, where they simply might now know what they are missing by
staying away from Debian.  As a result, in the last years we got
virtually no complaints about installation problems, got more users of
(Neuro)Debian -- and everyone just happily does their research ;)

We know people who deploy PyMVPA on other systems (including OSX) simply
via 'git clone + make' and it generally works fine, but they do run into
the problems at different corners.  E.g. absent "compatible" lapack
builds hurt some hyperalignment cases etc.

But if someone could step in and contribute here necessary for PyPI mods
+ promise of the future support of such installations (on this
list) -- I think we would not object to accept such a contribution
;)

Hope this makes sense.

Best regards,
-- 
Yaroslav O. Halchenko
http://neuro.debian.net http://www.pymvpa.org http://www.fail2ban.org
Postdoctoral Fellow,   Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Dartmouth College, 419 Moore Hall, Hinman Box 6207, Hanover, NH 03755
Phone: +1 (603) 646-9834                       Fax: +1 (603) 646-1419
WWW:   http://www.linkedin.com/in/yarik