Offer simpler development workflow?

I find the reliance on conda in the Ubuntu development environment quickstart guide exceedingly complex, not to mention the need to rename libgfortran.so, but I guess that those instructions are there for a good reason (historical pain setting up development environments, messed up Python installations… and other incarnations of Evil ™️ ). However, I tried this on a modern Linux Mint 20 box (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa) and this seemed to work just fine:

$ # create and activate pyenv/venv/virtualenv environment
(venv) $ pip install -e .
(venv) $ pip install numpy  # Surprisingly, NumPy didn't get installed in this step
(venv) $ pip install pytest
(venv) $ pytest -k optimize  # Works!

Is there any potential drawback in following this method?

[melissawm]

Ok folks - I am hijacking this issue for a bit but I think this discussion fits here. Currently, this is where you can find building instructions for SciPy:

• Building index: https://scipy.github.io/devdocs/building/index.html
• Building FAQ: https://scipy.github.io/devdocs/building/faq.html

(ordered by workflow)

• pip+venv+meson+linux → quickstart_pip
• pip+virtualenvwrapper+meson+linux → quickstart_pip
• conda+setuptools+linux → quickerstart_conda, quickstart_ubuntu
• conda+setuptools+mac → quickerstart_conda, quickstart_mac
• pip+setuptools+windows → building/windows
• docker+conda+setuptools → quickstart_docker
• gitpod+conda+setuptools → quickstart_gitpod
• setuptools+linux → building/linux
• setuptools+mac → building/macosx (outdated, with a warning)

I do have ideas to simplify these pages, and help guide users through them, but I wonder

1. what workflows do we want to keep supporting even after the meson switch is completed
2. how this relates to the work being done towards #15489

[ev-br]

A couple of idle thoughts:

• please don’t advertise anything without a virtual environment (pip or conda, no matter)
• maybe simplify the number of pages down to : a very quick start (both pip and conda, two sets of instructions in one page— or maybe separate if the two happen to sufficiently differ), ending with a dev.py call + a manual build showing meson incantations + a sepate widows page
• for conda + meson, a trick which needs stessing is installing python with conda, in the environment. Otherwise it’s a path to an unpleasant debugging session (just had one with a user in a separate project, where the homebrew-installed python was not playing ball)
• maybe hold off on the windows page for a while because one pep517 pip wrapper is buggy and the other one is not ready yet (I think)

Note that Mac OS and Linux are actually very similar and for a user who is not very novice, the difference is likely rather minor (eg, the second page can use either Mac OS Linux).