python(x,y) 64-bit

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pblelloch

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Mar 2, 2012, 12:51:02 PM3/2/12
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This question is more out of curiosity than anything else, but I was
wondering what the large challenges are in generating a 64-bit version
of python(x,y). Is it some particular component that's not yet
available in 64-bit, or something else?

THANKS, Paul Blelloch

Christoph Gohlke

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Mar 2, 2012, 1:44:25 PM3/2/12
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One challenge is to build a stable version of scipy (and some other packages) with a free Fortran compiler [1, 2]. AFAIK the only viable solution to date is to use the commercial Intel Fortran compiler and MKL libraries together with the Visual Studio 2008 compiler (free). Enthought [3], ActiveState [4], and many others are using this approach. The Intel compilers and libraries cost $$$$ and I'm not sure the binaries are freely redistributable. It might help to ask financial and legal support from the new NumFOCUS foundation. Besides that, all packages included in pythonxy, except VPython, are already available for win-amd64-py2.7 [5].

Christoph

[1] http://cournape.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/progress-for-numpy-on-windows-64-bits/
[2] http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/2011-July/057401.html
[3] http://www.enthought.com/products/epd.php
[4] http://www.activestate.com/activepython
[5] http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/

pblelloch

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Mar 2, 2012, 6:57:09 PM3/2/12
to python(x,y)
[5] does have a 64-bit version of scipy (as of 2/28). Is that not
freely distributable? I can download it and install it, though I’m
afraid of doing that because of various dependencies that might break.
Are there other packages?

My motivation in asking is that I was going to give a short talk in my
company next week on Python (we're heavy Matlab users). I definitely
think that Python(x,y) is the way to go in that environment and I'd
love to say that a 64-bit version was imminent. We've moved on from
32-bit Matlab many years ago, and I know that we wouldn't want to look
back.

-Paul


On Mar 2, 10:44 am, Christoph Gohlke <cjgoh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday, March 2, 2012 9:51:02 AM UTC-8, pblelloch wrote:
>
> > This question is more out of curiosity than anything else, but I was
> > wondering what the large challenges are in generating a 64-bit version
> > of python(x,y).  Is it some particular component that's not yet
> > available in 64-bit, or something else?
>
> > THANKS, Paul Blelloch
>
> One challenge is to build a stable version of scipy (and some other
> packages) with a free Fortran compiler [1, 2]. AFAIK the only viable
> solution to date is to use the commercial Intel Fortran compiler and MKL
> libraries together with the Visual Studio 2008 compiler (free). Enthought
> [3], ActiveState [4], and many others are using this approach. The Intel
> compilers and libraries cost $$$$ and I'm not sure the binaries are freely
> redistributable. It might help to ask financial and legal support from the
> new NumFOCUS foundation. Besides that, all packages included in pythonxy,
> except VPython, are already available for win-amd64-py2.7 [5].
>
> Christoph
>
> [1]http://cournape.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/progress-for-numpy-on-window...

Richard Signell

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Mar 3, 2012, 11:41:13 AM3/3/12
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We love Python(x,y), but because our organization has lots of
diversity (32bit/64 bit on Mac, Linux & PC) we are also using the
Enthought Python Distribution which supports all these
http://www.enthought.com/products/epd.php
as a scientific organization, we also like supporting the folks who
support numpy and scipy.

-Rich

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Rich Signell
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Gabi Davar

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Mar 4, 2012, 10:00:06 AM3/4/12
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Beside the issues described by Christoph, there is the issue of available resources. 
It will be of immense help if someone steps up to the task.  

pblelloch

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Mar 4, 2012, 3:24:12 PM3/4/12
to python(x,y)
I wish that I could help, but I'm not a programmer and really don't
know anything about what's involved in doing this. I am still a
little confused on the licensing issue. The Intel website says that a
license to their MKL is $399, and states that you may "Redistribute
unlimited copies of the runtime libraries with your application." On
the other hand the http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ site
states that "you may not redistribute the MKL builds unless you own an
appropriate license from Intel." I'm a newbie to the whole world of
open source software, but it seems to me that the Intel license makes
the binary runtime libraries freely redistributable, as long as the
person who compiles them has a license. Are the compiled versions
freely distributable, or is the problem that this breaks the open
source concept behind Python? I can definitely see that if everyone
who uses the library needs to get a license from Intel this becomes
highly problematical.

-Paul

pblelloch

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Mar 4, 2012, 3:26:41 PM3/4/12
to python(x,y)
I'm curious as to whether EPD and python(x,y) are mutually exclusive.
If I get EPD can I install it on top of python(x,y), or do I have two
mutually exclusive installations of Python and all the associated
libraries? I assume that there's a huge amount of overlap between EPD
and python(x,y), but that there are some unique components as well. I
particularly like the Spyder IDE, and would hate to give that up.

-Paul

On Mar 3, 8:41 am, Richard Signell <rsign...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We love Python(x,y), but because our organization has lots of
> diversity (32bit/64 bit on Mac, Linux & PC) we are also using the
> Enthought Python Distribution which supports all thesehttp://www.enthought.com/products/epd.php
> > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/pythonxy?hl=en.

Richard Signell

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Mar 5, 2012, 2:46:05 PM3/5/12
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Yes, you can run Spyder with EPD. You just need to downgrade ipython
and install a few packages:

enpkg epd
enpkg ipython 0.10.2 # downgrading from ipython-0.12-1.egg to 0.10.2-2.egg
enpkg spyder # Spyder 2.1
enpkg PyQt # required by Spyder 2.1
enpkg rope # used by Spyder for code introspection

> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pythonxy?hl=en.

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