Adding a setup.py for VisualPIC

[RemiLehe]

Right now, when using VisualPIC, the user needs to:

• install the dependencies by hand (using pip)
• navigate to the VisualPIC folder and execute the __main__.py

Both these two steps could be made more "flowy" by adding a setup.py. In this case:

• If the dependencies are indicated in setup.py, then they will be automatically checked, downloaded and installed when doing python setup.py install.
• The setup.py can also automatically add a command-line executable in your standard $PATH (e.g. visualpic) that can point to the __main__.py: see for instance the field entry_point in this example: https://github.com/openPMD/openPMD-validator/blob/1.1.X/setup.py

Thus I was wondering if there are any plans to add a setup.py for VisualPIC?

[AngelFP]

Hi Remi, thanks a lot for the suggestion. This is something that would definitely be interesting to add.

I will look into it once I have some time, but I'm not sure when that will be. I'm currently focusing on adding more features and polishing the 3D visualizer, but since I should really start thinking on doing some more physics and writing my thesis I'll probably have to leave visualpic aside for some time :/

Contributions are always welcome though ;)

[RemiLehe]

Sounds good. I just created a branch that contains the setup.py. This partially automatizes the installation process ; however, in its present state, it cannot automatically copy the custom QVTKRenderWIndowInterator.py.

I am really not familiar with vtk and interactive GUI, but is there a way to do this differently (i.e. to not need to copy this custom file, and instead have some way to point to it in its current location inside VisualPIC) ?

[AngelFP]

Thanks for looking into it! I have been working on the custom files today and I managed to include them directly in the code, so that VisualPIC now imports the custom modules instead of the ones in the python library.

I have just made PR from dev to master which also includes these changes, so you can check it out to work on the setup file.

[RemiLehe]

Thanks! I was able to successfully use my setup.py, starting from the updated master branch. You can have a look at the corresponding PR.