noatamir/pyladies-berlin-sprints

DOC: Update the development environment guide

Opened this issue · 4 comments

This issue can lead to several PRs on the same page in the contributors guide:

  • In the section about using Docker to create an environment, there is a helpful note reminding contributors that they will need to remember and reuse the command to build (and rebuild) the C-extension. It is possible that contributors who aren't using the docker option will never read this and face issues. Please edit the page to make this visible and clear to all contributors.
  • In the section about installing pandas update the installation command to mamba env create -f environment.yml. See pandas-dev/pandas#49959.
  • Add a comment that if installing packages using conda or pip is falling, one can try to use conda or mamba install with -c conda-forge since it has more packages
  • Add a comment for windows users that it is recommended they use WSL. polars have a comment to this effect https://github.com/pola-rs/polars/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#setting-up-your-local-environment.
  • Rename the mamba section to Creating a conda-style environment (Mamba recommended). Clarify that these instructions apply to using conda or mamba. Both will work, mamba will be faster.
  • In the mamba section, at the line that says “cd to the pandas source directory” add: " you just created with the clone command."
  • In the docker section, before running the docker command, add some a concise explanation that clarifies the command needs to run from where the library where docker file is saved locally.
  • We direct folks to the community slack for support only after at the end of the mamba section. Add a similar direction at the top of the page, so everyone can easily find out they can get support with set-up.

Note from the sprint: installing mambaforge can be confusing. Our section about it first links to the mamba docs, which lists multiple ways to isntall mamba. The first one there then links to the miniforge page, where you have installers for both miniforge and mambaforge, so you still need to download the correct one (and if you accidentally downloaded the miniforge one, you will get errors about “mamba” not being a recognized command)

  • In the section about using Docker to create an environment, there is a helpful note reminding contributors that they will need to remember and reuse the command to build (and rebuild) the C-extension. It is possible that contributors who aren't using the docker option will never read this and face issues. Please edit the page to make this visible and clear to all contributors.

@noatamir: Do you mean these lines?

python setup.py build_ext -j 4
python -m pip install -e . --no-build-isolation --no-use-pep517

@DeaMariaLeon I meant this Note which seems to have been removed in a very recent update pandas-dev/pandas#49981:
Screenshot of dev env note from version 1.5.2

I still think it's helpful, but wasn't in the right place. Maybe you have a suggestion of how to incorporate it back, so everyone can find it?

OK @noatamir, I'll give it a try.