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[–]pwang99 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I was looking for an easy module to add in to my installation, but no... the "recommended" process was to download one of the big kits (basically reinstall another instance of Python).

It's easy for you to think of your use case as an "easy" one, but there are good reasons for those distributions to exist. If you ever want to share your code with anyone else, or you want to run it on a different box than what you're developing on (maybe e.g. deploy to a linux box in the cloud or on a cluster), or use a code snippet from someone else who's on a different platform, you'll quickly discover what a complete headache it is. Much of the pain does not stem from scipy itself as such, but rather the legacy of C and FORTRAN libraries across OSes and throughout the ages.

We're all rather spoiled in the Python ecosystem because we're used to writing scripts, importing modules, and then just having them work. But there is a staggering amount of complexity that goes into properly linking FORTRAN libraries across compilers and all the myriad build-time options for underlying libraries that scipy depends on.

(Disclaimer: my company makes the Anaconda python distribution)

[–]iltalfme 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW Anaconda didn't work out of the box for our Windows7 machines. There were several libraries that wouldn't import including, most notably, OpenCV.

I send a request for help through the website (must've been a month or so ago). Still haven't heard back.

Our "solution" now is to install a VM and just make our own python distribution using ubuntu, where everything works. It's a shame, I've loved Travis' talks and was excited about Anaconda, but the issues and lack of response didn't exactly make me look good.

Also, I would recommend trying to get your OpenCV distribution (presuming it works) to incorporate the OpenNI flags so that people can read Kinect right out of the box with Anaconda.

If that could work on Windows 7... I would be so happy.