More problems installing Spyder on Windows

[NerdFever.com]

Can someone point me at explicit (step-by-step) instructions for
getting Spyder running on a Win7 x64 system?

It's not clear to me:

1 - Which version of Python I need (x86, x64, or doesn't matter)
2 - Where Python has to be installed (anywhere or only in c:\Python27)
3 - If I should be using the installer or "standalone".
4 - If the "standalone", how to use it?

Since I haven't found documentation that answers these questions, I've
tried as many brute-force permutations of the above as I can think of,
but I still don't have it running.

Here is what I tried so far:

-------------------------------------

Spyder installation attempt log, started 2012-01-02

All attempts on Windows 7 x64.

Try 1:
Install spyder-2.1.6_py27.exe

Complains that Python is not installed.

Try 2:
Install Python 2.7.2 x64 in c:\Program Files\python272
Install spyder-2.1.6_py27.exe

Fails. Uninstall.

Try 3:
Install Python 2.7.2 x64 in c:\python27 (default location)
Install spyder-2.1.6_py27.exe

Fails. Uninstall.

Try 4:
Install Python 2.7.2 x64 in c:\python27 (default location)
Extract spyder-win32-sa-2.1.6.zip
Run spyder.exe

Fails. Uninstall.

Try 5:
Install Python 2.7.2 x86 in c:\Program Files (x86)\python272
Install spyder-2.1.6_py27.exe

Fails. Uninstall.

Try 6:
Install Python 2.7.2 x86 in c:\python27 (default location)
Install spyder-2.1.6_py27.exe

Fails. (did _not_ uninstall at this time)

Try 7:
Extract spyder-win32-sa-2.1.6.zip
Run spyder.exe

Gives error about "Spyder crashed last time" and suggests running
"--reset".

So I try:

C:\Users\dave>cd \Python27

C:\Python27>python spyder --reset
python: can't open file 'spyder': [Errno 2] No such file or
directory

C:\Python27>

Since that didn't work, I instead delete the entire contents
of C:\Users\dave\.spyder2

Extract spyder-win32-sa-2.1.6.zip
Run spyder.exe

I get the Spyder32 splash screen for a moment, then it disappears and
there
is no sign of Spyder running.

Extract spyder-win32-sa-2.1.6.zip
Run spyder.exe

Again I get the error about "Spyder crashed last time" and suggests
running
"--reset".


I give up for now; will post this log on the Spyder thread.

[matt]

I sent a somewhat involved reply to your other post, but it never came
through. That is a bit frustrating. Anyway, the gist of it was:

1) It seems you need to learn more about installing modules on python
in general: http://docs.python.org/install/index.html
And some software can have trouble with spaces in the path names:
thus c:\python27 is better
2) It will be much easier to get a working version on x86(32 bit)
windows because you can use python(x,y). However you won't get the
benefit of your advanced system architecture(more address space etc.)
3) If you use 64 bit, these are handy: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/
4) Here is the generalized install advice, note the package
dependencies(especially PyQt4 and Sphinx): http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/wiki/Installation

I am not an expert but I have this working on Windows 7 64 bit. If
the install doesn't give you a working batch file try running the
spyder.py script in the site-packages directory.

[NerdFever.com]

Thanks for both replies, Matt!

I got it installed today via python(x,y). That installed an older
version of Spyder, so I had to run the 2.1.6 installer afterward to
update it (not so obvious, but I figured it out). It seems to be
working OK now.

I don't know why installing Spyder needs to be so difficult; I think a
lot more people would use it if there was a clear install guide.

Also the documentation seems to be spread out among several different
web sites:

http://packages.python.org/spyder/
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/w/list

(the last one is kind of hidden and hard to find; you have to click on
the "Wiki" link at http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/wiki/Support)

It would be easier for those of us new to Spyder (and Python) if these
were consolidated into one place.

Anyway, it's working for me now. It will be nice to have the x64
support one day, but for now I can live with the 32-bit version.

Many thanks to the developers for this great tool!!

Cheers,

--Dave

[matt]

Once you become a little more familiar with python(and you will really
fast if you keep at it) the spyder install won't seem so bad. It is
harder on windows though and probably not the easiest one to start
with. You have to remember most python developers don't use windows
much if at all, so sometimes windows instructions lag a bit. When you
get more comfortable with it you can try the custom 64 bit install
again. The main benefit is the additional address space available for
large data sets. Although I am just starting really, coming from a
matlab background it is a very impressive tool.

On Jan 3, 9:09 pm, "NerdFever.com" <dave.lindbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for both replies, Matt!
>
> I got it installed today via python(x,y).  That installed an older
> version of Spyder, so I had to run the 2.1.6 installer afterward to
> update it (not so obvious, but I figured it out).  It seems to be
> working OK now.
>
> I don't know why installing Spyder needs to be so difficult; I think a
> lot more people would use it if there was a clear install guide.
>
> Also the documentation seems to be spread out among several different
> web sites:
>

> http://packages.python.org/spyder/http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/w/list

>
> (the last one is kind of hidden and hard to find; you have to click on

> the "Wiki" link athttp://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/wiki/Support)

[Pierre Raybaut]

Hi Dave,

Le mercredi 4 janvier 2012 04:09:37 UTC+1, NerdFever.com a écrit :

I got it installed today via python(x,y).  That installed an older
version of Spyder, so I had to run the 2.1.6 installer afterward to
update it (not so obvious, but I figured it out).  It seems to be
working OK now.

On Windows platforms, Python(x,y) is indeed the simplest way of installing a 32-bit Python environment from scratch. I always keep a copy of the main installer on my USB key: so far, it's been a huge help (everywhere I go, if there is a PC with Windows, I can code with a complete working Python environment in less than 10 minutes).

 

I don't know why installing Spyder needs to be so difficult; I think a
lot more people would use it if there was a clear install guide.

Also the documentation seems to be spread out among several different
web sites:

http://packages.python.org/spyder/
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/w/list

(the last one is kind of hidden and hard to find; you have to click on
the "Wiki" link at http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/wiki/Support)

It would be easier for those of us new to Spyder (and Python) if these
were consolidated into one place.

That's an interesting point of view. Thanks for sharing it with us: we have to take action on this. 

Cheers,

Pierre

[NerdFever.com]

On Jan 3, 10:43 pm, matt <wmattander...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is
> harder on windows though and probably not the easiest one to start
> with.  You have to remember most python developers don't use windows
> much if at all, so sometimes windows instructions lag a bit.

I know. For that very reason I made a serious attempt to move my main
computing environment from Windows to Linux a few months ago.
Unfortunately, as I documented on my blog at http://nerdfever.com/?p=1733,
that didn't work for me. I hope I'm not getting too old for this
stuff.

> When you
> get more comfortable with it you can try the custom 64 bit install
> again.  The main benefit is the additional address space available for
> large data sets.  Although I am just starting really, coming from a
> matlab background it is a very impressive tool.

I'm also looking at Spyder/Python as a replacement for Matlab. I'd
really like to get the 64 bit environment working, but since I wasn't
able even to get the 32-bit versions working without the help of
python(x,y), I think I'll have to wait a bit on that. I'm still
hoping for either at 64-bit version of python(x,y), or an
understanding of how the install is supposed to go.

Anyway, thanks very much for your replies. Spyder looks really great;
I'm looking forward to porting over a lot of Matlab code...

Cheers,

--Dave

[dred]

Dave,

Good luck with porting your Matlab code. I've done it a few times and
found it wasn't difficult but quite tedious. I wrote a macro in NEdit
(old text editor that I haven't got round to finding a worthy
replacement) to translate matlab to numpy. The macro was basically a
series of find&replace statements using regular expressions. It did
help a fair bit but it was far from being robust. I'm surprised that
there is no established matlab to numpy translater around - correct me
if I'm wrong.

It would be useful if Spyder's text editor had macro functionality
with keystroke recording - similar to NEdit but better if the macros
were in the python language. Then I might ditch NEdit altogether. I
might fill in a feature request.



Doug

On Jan 5, 2:13 am, "NerdFever.com" <dave.lindbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 3, 10:43 pm, matt <wmattander...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > It is
> > harder on windows though and probably not the easiest one to start
> > with.  You have to remember most python developers don't use windows
> > much if at all, so sometimes windows instructions lag a bit.
>
> I know.  For that very reason I made a serious attempt to move my main
> computing environment from Windows to Linux a few months ago.

> Unfortunately, as I documented on my blog athttp://nerdfever.com/?p=1733,