3 ms·

Actually, this particular one does a lot that pip doesn't do... It manages dependencies that aren't python packages. Furthermore, it allows multiple, side-by-

by jofer 14y ago

Actually, this particular one does a lot that pip doesn't do... It manages dependencies that aren't python packages. Furthermore, it allows multiple, side-by-side installations of said dependencies in a user's home directory. And it's cross platform. None of the current solutions can do that... (Even including full-blown package managers, as they're effectively limited to a single platform.) I'm not saying that pip is going anywhere, but they did have very good reasons for making yet another python package manager.

olympus 14y ago
I'll concede the point that pip can't handle non-python packages. But it can handle side by side versioning by way of virtualenv. But if I need a specific version for a project I just install that version into my virtualenv's /bin/ folder and that becomes the version used whenever I activate that virtualenv. It's super easy and doesn't add to the cluttered package manager ecosystem.
- jofer 14y ago
  Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that pip didn't handle multiple versions (though my comment certainly reads that way). I intended that to be a comparison of "full-blown" package managers with conda. (As were the user-home-directory and cross-platform comments.) At any rate, pip is really fantastic, and I use it constantly. However, being able to handle non-python dependencies is huge in the scientific world, where lots of python packages have a _lot_ of non-python dependencies. Widely-used packages (e.g. numpy, matplotlib, scipy, etc) don't have very many, and are well supported, but a lot of the less widely-used packages can be a real pain to build. I'm excited about it because conda has the potential to replace a couple of virtual machines I currently keep around for this purpose. I'll certainly admit it's not a majority use-case, but if it works as advertised it will be very useful for me, at any rate.

by jofer 14y ago

olympus 14y ago

I'll concede the point that pip can't handle non-python packages. But it can handle side by side versioning by way of virtualenv. But if I need a specific version for a project I just install that version into my virtualenv's /bin/ folder and that becomes the version used whenever I activate that virtualenv. It's super easy and doesn't add to the cluttered package manager ecosystem.

jofer 14y ago
Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that pip didn't handle multiple versions (though my comment certainly reads that way). I intended that to be a comparison of "full-blown" package managers with conda. (As were the user-home-directory and cross-platform comments.) At any rate, pip is really fantastic, and I use it constantly. However, being able to handle non-python dependencies is huge in the scientific world, where lots of python packages have a _lot_ of non-python dependencies. Widely-used packages (e.g. numpy, matplotlib, scipy, etc) don't have very many, and are well supported, but a lot of the less widely-used packages can be a real pain to build. I'm excited about it because conda has the potential to replace a couple of virtual machines I currently keep around for this purpose. I'll certainly admit it's not a majority use-case, but if it works as advertised it will be very useful for me, at any rate.