Installation

Prerequisites

This package depends on:

  • Python 3.5 or 2.7 (untested on other versions)
  • NumPy
  • SciPy
  • matplotlib
  • Cython, and corresponding build environment for compiling C code
  • scikit-image
  • Astropy

However, rather than installing these packages individually, it is highly recommended that one instead use a scientific Python distribution (e.g., Anaconda), which will include useful packages such as Jupyter Notebook (formerly IPython Notebook).

The build environment for C code is a bit trickier to set up on Windows than on the other platforms:

  • Python 3.5:

  • Python 2.7:

    • Install Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7

    • Patch C:\yourpythoninstall\Lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py by adding the following highlighted lines at the top of the find_vcvarsall() function:

      def find_vcvarsall(version):
    """Find the vcvarsall.bat file

    At first it tries to find the productdir of VS 2008 in the registry. If
    that fails it falls back to the VS90COMNTOOLS env var.
    """
    vsbase = VS_BASE % version
    vcpath = os.environ['ProgramFiles']
    vcpath = os.path.join(vcpath, 'Common Files', 'Microsoft',
        'Visual C++ for Python', '9.0', 'vcvarsall.bat')
    if os.path.isfile(vcpath): return vcpath
    vcpath = os.path.join(os.environ['LOCALAPPDATA'], 'Programs', 'Common', 'Microsoft', 'Visual C++ for Python', '9.0', 'vcvarsall.bat')
    if os.path.isfile(vcpath): return vcpath
    ...

    • Create a file distutils.cfg in C:\yourpythoninstall\Lib\distutils\ with the following:

      [build]
compiler=msvc

You should now be able to build extensions. If these steps don’t work for you, or you are using a different version of Python, this page or this other page may be helpful.

Installing gripspy

You can download gripspy either as a Git repository or just the code itself. Installing gripspy can be done through the basic ways (e.g., python setup.py), although I prefer using pip so that tracking installations is easier. I recommend installing gripspy in “editable” mode so that it is more convenient for active development, e.g.:

pip install -e .