Should pip install recOrder-napari install napari?

[talonchandler]

@mattersoflight suggested that we change recOrder's dependencies so that pip install recOrder-napari installs napari. I agree that, if possible,pip install recOrder-napari should provide the most polished installation path.

In chatting with @ziw-liu and @edyoshikun (cc @amitabhverma) about this plan, they brought up two potential issues:

• following napari plugin best practice, we should not depend on a specific PySide or PyQt
• they need the ability to install recOrder-napari without napari so that they can use it with existing environments.

@ziw-liu @edyoshikun would the following solution work? If not, can you share your preferred installation instructions for both novices and experienced users.

(Novice users):pip install recOrder-napari installs napari[pyqt6]
Experienced users): pip install recOrder-napari[no-napari] does not install napari so that recOrder can be used via CLI and/or integrated into other environments.

[ziw-liu]

Experienced users): pip install recOrder-napari[no-napari] does not install napari so that recOrder can be used via CLI and/or integrated into other environments.

How would this be implemented? IIRC optional dependencies can only add dependencies, not remove them.

Edit: see this discussion on python discourse.

[ziw-liu]

I'm actually fine with installing napari by default since it's at least pure python, but currently recOrder[acq] has some Qt-related quirks that requires specific Qt backends which will impose limitations on other coexisting packages in an environment.

[ziw-liu]

Given the limitations of python, the best I can think of is what napari does (or had to do): using a [all] flag in all of our documentation so that it's clear what needs to be done for most users, and keep the base dependencies free of Qt.

[talonchandler]

Thanks for helping us think this through, @ziw-liu. So I think we're heading towards:

(Novice users, recommended in docs): pip install recOrder-napari[all] installs napari[pyqt6].
(Experienced users): pip install recOrder-napari does not install napari (or Qt)