Windows port of MDAnalysis

[orbeckst]

So far we have not been successful in building MDAnalysis for Windows. #150 explored some of the problems but part of the issue is that none of the core developers seem to be using Windows so that there are few incentives. For the distribution of MDAnalysis it would be very good if we had a binary Windows package available.

I am looking for suggestions on how to make this happen. This includes questions such as

• What parts of the library are problematic?
• What kind of environment would be needed for development (e.g. Windows versions, compilers, Python distribution, etc) – I could probably provide a properly equipped instance somewhere.
• How is Python used on Windows?
• Can we use e.g. http://www.appveyor.com/ for continuous integration? For hints on how to do this see the Python Packaging Supporting Windows using Appveyor guide.
• What incentives would you need to work on a Windows port?

[cing]

Back when I was commenting on that issue, I did end up compiling everything (it's possible!). At that time I was supervising two students with Windows-only laptops and now those students are gone. So, no need for Windows for me, but someone out there might still be interested?

[hainm]

Not sure who is using Windows for analyzing MD data.

[kain88-de]

It shouldn't be that much of a problem. mdtraj has an appveyor build. It should be possible for us to use their configuration as well.