[Tutor] Problem compiling code from GitHub

[Steven D'Aprano]

Hi Dave, and welcome!


On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 12:14:33PM +0100, Dave Hill wrote:

> I have found 'odswriter' on GitHub 
> https://github.com/mmulqueen/odswriter which appears to provide what I 
> want. However, I have come to a halt, due to the limitation of my knowledge.

[...]


> I get the following error
> 
>    Traceback (most recent call last):
>       File "C:\Code\Python\ODS_Writer\Test_ODS#1.py", line 5, in <module>
>         from OdsWriter import odswriter as ods
>       File "C:\Code\Python\ODS_Writer\OdsWriter.py", line 7, in <module>
>         from . import ods_components
>    ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
> 
> I have put the code from GitHub in various locations

That sounds like the problem. Some libraries are pretty forgiving about 
where they are, some not so much. Some come with detailed installation 
instructions, some don't.

This appears to be in the second category of both cases.

I would start by carefully deleting the code from Github (or at least 
moving it out of the way) first, then installing it again.

Try installing it using the pip command. Open up a command line console. 
I think you do this under Windows by typing Ctrl-R ("Run") then entering 
"cmd", You ought to get a text window with a prompt looking something 
like this:

    C:\ %

or similar. (If in doubt, ask.)

Try entering the command

    pip --version

and if you get an error like "pip not found" or similar, try this:

   python36 -m ensurepip --default-pip
   python36 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel

after which you can then try:

   pip install odswriter

I'll be honest: I don't use pip myself, every time I've tried I get 
frustrated and end up installing things the old-fashioned manual way 
which is theoretically "harder" but it works for me. And everyone else 
swears by pip. (I just swear at it, especially the horrible colours it 
likes to use.)

But if you get any errors, please don't hesitate to copy and paste them 
here (DON'T take a screen shot) so we can read them and advise you.


There's a tutorial here with more detail:

https://packaging.python.org/tutorials/installing-packages/




-- 
Steve