Documentation - update installation instructions - April 2023
The preferred installation procedure should be pip install git+https://code.usgs.gov/ghsc/geomag/geomag-algorithms.git
, which is described in docs/install.md. These instructions should be swapped with the Docker-related instructions in README.md, then all related documentation cleaned up for clarity, correctness, and completeness. Some things to consider:
- with Poetry to manage dependencies, the
pip install git+...
method should eliminate the need to explicitly install things like obspy; - command line programs like geomag-py are installed into pip's best guess as a sensible bin folder, but users must ensure that this folder is in their configured path;
- mention that a Python installation is required, and the current minimum/maximum supported Python versions (check pyproject.toml for this info)
- clarify the difference between regular user and developer installations
More Information:
Sometime in the past couple years, the project's README.md file was changed to only recommend using Docker images to install geomag-algorithms. While this is theoretically simpler (e.g., it doesn't require the user to set up Python), there are other complications that prevent many users from using this approach (e.g., Docker Desktop changed its terms of use to eliminate free use by commercial or government developers). The Docker instructions are still worthwhile, but they should not be the first thing new users see in our README.md file.