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by siddboots 4700 days ago
NumPy is not nearly portable enough to do what you are describing as a user on a windows machine. You cannot simply do a `pip install numpy` into a virtualenv. Instead you must either install the package system-wide, or compile it yourself, which means getting a working MinGW environment or similar.

Edit: Although, I do agree that NumPy being difficult to install is not, on its own, a good justification for the PEP.
1 comments
cdavid 4700 days ago
numpy is quite portable, I am not sure what you mean by not nearly portable enough.

The reason why you can't do pip install numpy is pip's fault, there is nothing that numpy can do to make that work. Note that easy_install numpy does work on windows (without the need for a C compiler).

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bachback 4700 days ago
the problems I have had with numpy are endless. Usually I'll just prefer to write my own, because it's quicker. if you have tried to get numpy running on a cloud machine you'll know what I'm talking about. basically you will have to know how to compile from source, know some gcc, etc. the last time I tried to get it running I promised myself never to use numpy again.
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malkarouri 4700 days ago
I suggest you try again. I think the situation has changed. I have been using Numpy/Scipy for a few years now, with all the negative experience of having to sort out whether to use g77 or gfortran and the right gcc flags etc. The most recent version, Numpy 1.7.0, is the first one that installed for me smoothly on Windows and OS X (official packages). YMMV, but I think it is alright now.
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cdavid 4700 days ago
many people have been able to use numpy on clouds. You only need gcc and the python-dev package on linux.

Frankly, building numpy is not very complicated (scipy is a bit complicated, and only if you are not on linux).

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No1 4700 days ago
> basically you will have to know how to compile from source, know some gcc, etc.

If you're happy with the system-wide Python, try apt-get install python-numpy next time.

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siddboots 4699 days ago
I'm back at work, and have had a chance to verify; it turns out that you were correct. I was confused by my bad memories of trying to install SciPy into a virtualenv.
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