pip and command line

[Terry Reedy]

On 3/11/2018 2:08 PM, GISDude wrote:
> On Saturday, March 10, 2018 at 10:28:00 AM UTC-8, Terry Reedy wrote:

>>> Why can't I use pip while in IDLE
>>
>> Would you expect to use pip in MS Excel?  If you type 'python' at a
>> command line, and get the '>>>' REPL prompt (google REPL), then your
>> input goes to the python interpreter, which only accepts python
>> statements.  The same is true in the IDLE Shell, and when you run python
>> code in the editor.
>>
>> [Some 3rd party IDEs have a front end for PIP. I wanted to add this for
>> IDLE but the project was vetoed when partly done.]

What one can do in any Python REPL or program is to use subprocess to 
call pip.  I used something like the following, recently, to prove it 
could be done, to install numpy from IDLE shell on Windows.

 >>> import subprocess as sub
 >>> sub.run("pip install numpy", stdout=sub.PIPE, stderr=sub.STDOUT).stdout

But since I have Command Prompt pinned to the taskbar and often open, 
there is no point to this extra typing for me.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy