I certainly agree with a need for a better website. Noel's user documentation
(https://open-babel.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
<https://open-babel.readthedocs.org/en/latest/>) gives a lot about getting
started and using Python. If you have suggestions, it's welcome. At the moment,
I don't have the time to do a website redesign.
As far as packaging, it's not really our job to intercede with OS-specific
packages. Debian, Ubuntu, etc. have managers and a set policy about updates and
what to install with the main package (i.e., not scripting bindings - that's a
separate package).
Now, you mention having a more frequent release schedule. That'd be great, but
I'd really need people to step up to help as release managers. Given 2-3 people
willing to help, we can certainly get a more concrete schedule - which I think
would also help with your frustration at older binary packaging.
So if people can provide a little help:
- Website, possibly migrating to GitHub pages / Jekyll (i.e., re-using the
Sphinx documentation)
- Volunteering to serve as release managers
-Geoff
> From: Patrick Fuller <patrickful...@gmail.com>
...
> In more detail:
> I think that the complicated install / getting started process is dissuading
> new users. This project would focus on the new user experience, particularly
> the first 30 minutes after someone decides to try open babel. The goal should
> be to get novice programmers properly set up and writing an interesting
> script (an a-ha moment) in this time.This would lead to a couple of
> sub-projects:
>
> Information organization. There is a ton of information in the open babel
> website, but the home page is daunting for new users. As a good example to
> follow, I’d point to django’s website <https://www.djangoproject.com/> -
> there’s a big “Get Started” button right when the page loads. This is an
> intentional choice, and described by the django founder in this talk
> <http://pyvideo.org/video/403/pycon-2011--writing-great-documentation>.
> Scripting as a first-class citizen. I think a tutorial should cover basic
> tasks through the command line, C++, and python. The information is already
> on the website, but it just needs to be presented to new users quicker.
> Installation. A large portion of scientific coders aren’t particularly good
> at software (see software carpentry <http://software-carpentry.org/>), and
> don’t have the ability / desire to debug things like cmake output. There are
> packages out there, but they’re tied to an old version of open babel and
> don’t install everything. Hard drive space is cheap- open babel should
> install everything through every installation method with build options to
> disable. Approaches:
> OS-specific package managers, e.g. brew, apt-get, yum. Maintaining all of
> these separately is a hassle, but I’ve been told good things about effing
> package management <https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm> as a translator.
> Other challenges include: can’t use most recent commit (I think homebrew is
> an exception), and doesn’t play well with virtual environments out of the box.
> Language-specific package managers, e.g. pip. It’s a hassle to compile
> through these package managers, but they play well with language-specific
> virtual environments and git (e.g. pip install
> git+https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel
> <https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel>).
> Conda. The best user experience (if the binaries work), cross-OS,
> language-agnostic, and a great virtual environment. I don’t think there’s
> enough support to direct all users to conda, but it would be worth supporting
> conda binaries, mentioning it in the getting started, and hoping adoption
> grows.
> Versioning. New releases every x months, and ideally a simple workflow to
> propagate a new version to all supported package managers.
> If I can help further, let me know.
>
> Pat
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