[Numpy-discussion] Should I use pip install numpy in linux?

[Steve Waterbury]

On 01/15/2016 04:08 PM, Benjamin Root wrote:
> So, again, I love conda for what it can do when it works well. I only
> take exception to the notion that it can address *all* problems, because
> there are some problems that it just simply isn't properly situated for.

Actually, I would say you didn't mention any ... ;)  The issue is
not that it "isn't properly situated for" (whatever that means)
the problems you describe, but that -- in the case you mention,
for example -- no one has conda-packaged those solutions yet.

FWIW, our sysadmins and I use conda for django / apache / mod_wsgi
sites and we are very happy with it.  IMO, compiling mod_wsgi in
the conda environment and keeping it up is trivial compared to the
awkwardnesses introduced by using pip/virtualenv in those cases.

We also use conda for sites with nginx and the conda-packaged
uwsgi, which works great and even permits the use of a separate
env (with, if necessary, different versions of django, etc.)
for each application.  No need to set up an entire VM for each app!
*My* sysadmins love conda -- as soon as they saw how much better
than pip/virtualenv it was, they have never looked back.

IMO, conda is by *far* the best packaging solution the python
community has ever seen (and I have been using python for more
than 20 years).  I too have been stunned by some of the resistance
to conda that one sometimes sees in the python packaging world.
I've had a systems package maintainer tell me "it solves a
different problem [than pip]" ... hmmm ... I would say it
solves the same problem *and more*, *better*.  I attribute
some of the conda-ignoring to "NIH" and, to some extent,
possibly defensiveness (I would be defensive too if I had been
working on pip as long as they had when conda came along ;).

Cheers,
Steve Waterbury
NASA/GSFC