CSA Connector Incompatible With Virtualenvs On MacOSX

[dkfellows]

The new CSA connector is broke. One of the ways it is broke is that it needs the csa package. The csa package needs to be able to execute inside matplotlib when installing. (WTF dudes!) The matplotlib package is incredibly finicky about running inside virtualenvs on OSX, as has been documented elsewhere… so essentially if you don't configure your virtualenv correctly right at the beginning (a very non-obvious time!) then you can't install sPyNNaker on OSX in that virtualenv because of shitty design in a whole bunch of components that we don't control. And you also need to set up semi-obvious configuration files (~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc) to make things work. ALL BECAUSE SOME PART-TIME PROGRAMMER HAS NO IDEA WHAT IS A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE AS A DEPENDENCY!

I'm more than a bit aggrieved about this. In particular, I'm upset at how nasty this whole experience is. I also opened INCF/csa#11 about the real problem, but I don't expect anyone professional to ever review that.

[rowleya]

Looks like you are getting a response to the csa ticket :)

[rowleya]

Additionally, if this doesn't happen, we could make the csa package optional as well

[andrewgait]

It’s probably best if we make it optional - there are as Donal says a number of issues with installing matplotlib in OSX that are best avoided unless the user wants the plotting capabilities or csa available.

[andrewgait]

@Christian-B was this dealt with fully in #678 ?

[alan-stokes]

this still open? or does it need closing?

[Christian-B]

#678 does not deal with the problem.

It delays raising the import issue from the moment the connector is imported until the moment it is used. (init)

[Christian-B]

I do not consider this a blocker. Sorry Mac users

[dkfellows]

As long as things install and allow people to use other connectors, it's not a big problem.

[Christian-B]

This will not be fixed as the CSA connector is not a priority.

Please reopen if there is a specific use.