Re: Setting up a python environment

[sirgazil]

 ---- On Mon, 11 May 2020 07:34:09 -0500 Roy Lemmon <address@hidden> wrote ----
 > Hi,
 > 
 > I would like to ask about the general philosophy of setting up a python
 > environment under guix.
 > 
 > For other linux systems I have used pip to manage python packages and
 > libraries.
 > 
 > In guix is the idea that guix replaces pip for managing packages and
 > libraries ?

I think so, yes, ideally.

 > So I would create a python-package for any missing python
 > packages ?

Yes.

 > In the guix package lists, I can find many of the python
 > libraries but there are a few missing that I would like, eg. astropy - an
 > astronomy analysis library. So should I be creating a guix package for that
 > rather than installing with pip ?
 
That's the idea, yes: to have all Python packages available in Guix. That way, 
if your projects depend on Python packages and non-Python packages, you can 
specify all the requirements of your projects conveniently in a Guix manifest 
file (instead of having a requirements file for pip and another requirements 
file for some OS package manager, and possibly, another requirements file for 
another programmnig language used in a project).

In practice, though, your projects could require many packages that are not yet 
in Guix. For example, astropy could depend on other packages that are not 
available, and those packages depend on other packages that are not available, 
and so on. To package them all would be a job in itself, and you would not have 
time to work on your project.  So, depending on your specific case, you might 
still need to use Python virtual environments and pip to get things done. For 
the latter you can use Python's venv, or poetry, or other tools that are 
already available in Guix for managing Python projects and environments.

I recommend to watch the https://guix.gnu.org/videos/ for an introduction to 
packaging.




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