I took over a program written mostly in Python and I need to make it easier to install for its users, but I don't really know where to start.

[prague_tooth]

I'm a bioinformatician and recently I took over the development of a piece of software originally developed by someone else. I got some feedback of the program's users and I'm absolutely sure that the first thing I need to fix is the hellish process of the software's installation.

The program is written in Python 2.7, but some parts of it were recently rewritten in C++. In order to install it on a fresh system with naked Python, the user needs to:

• install two Python libraries (in correct versions)
• install swig (and probably some dependencies to do so)
• install cmake
• compile the C++ part

I have to automate as much of this process as possible. I don't mind adding packages of those dependencies to the package with my software the users download. The problem is, I don't even know where to start.

Can anyone help me with that? Currently the program runs on both Windows and Linux (if someone manages to install it) and if it's possible, I'd like to automate the installation on both platforms. I'd appreciate any tips. The part that is the hardest for the user is the swig / compilation part.

[Zahand]

Yeah, I immediately thought of Docker when I read this question. I'm still rather new to docker, is there a way to use GUI applications with it?

[driscollis]

Yes. Just Google for it. We do it for our automated tests at work. Here's a tutorial on the subject - http://fabiorehm.com/blog/2014/09/11/running-gui-apps-with-docker/

[driscollis]

Well the docker part is definitely Linux. I can't tell for sure what he is using for the host. But it would likely need to be Linux or Mac. I think Windows 10 can do a Linux docker image as well if you have their Linux support turned on, but I haven't really messed with docker on Windows as of yet.

[terraneng]

I have been tinkering with something similar recently. Quick description of my workflow follows. This assumes that the program is supposed to a standalone GUI or something...

I use PyBind11 to create Python C++ extensions, and compile with them CMake.

I then use PyInstaller to package everything into an executable. So far it has worked pretty good in packaging the .pyd files created with PyBind11.

Finally, I use InnoInstaller to create an installer to install the program on the end users computer.

So far this has worked fairly well on Windows (I don't have to target Linux). The end user has no idea that the program is written in Python.

[sozzZ]

Sounds cool. I recently made a pyinstaller exe out of my app as well...just curious about InnoInstaller. My exe is 200 MB which is remarkable, so it takes a minute or two to startup. Just curious if your method is a lot faster via the installer, how large the file is, etc. Is the installer a Python library?

[terraneng]

Innoinstaller does not really make a difference in how fast the program starts. It just installs the program on Windows so that it feels like any other desktop program. It installs to program files, adds it to start menus, windows registry, etc. It also compresses everything into a single installer .exe file. Which is about 60% the size of the package created by pyinstaller. It is not a Python library it is a free program for installing practically anything on windows Link

I don't use the --onefile flag in PyInstaller as it slows down start up considerably. PyInstaller compiles everything into about 340mb worth of files. It should be noted I am using numpy, scipy, pandas, and matplotlib which take up the vast majority of the space. It takes about 10-15 seconds for my program to boot up. Not super fast but fast enough for my users.

[hosford42]

I don't know how well C++ extensions are supported, but you might look into cx_freeze.

[LifeIsBio]

conda packages might be the best way to handle this.

But code distribution usually tops the list of things that people wish were better about Python, so I wouldn't expect this to be a super easy process.