Wishlist: brew install for MacOS

[edreamleo]

This item has gotten unwieldy. I've moved most notes to leoDist.leo.

[ludwigschwardt]

[The brew commands] assume that you are actually using Homebrew, and normally the Homebrew repo then lives in /usr/local. I normally work in that repo and would then copy the formula elsewhere for pushing (typically to my tap repo).

You don't have to issue a new pull request. Just add your changes to the same branch and push them, and they will remain associated with the same pull request. This is a great feature of the PR: you can commit and discuss until everyone is happy and the PR then gets accepted.

@ludwigschwardt These were very helpful comments. The last time around I created a copy of the entire Homebrew directory in my home directory. As you say, there is no need to do this, and it just adds to the confusion.

[edreamleo]

Status report: I worked several hours yesterday on a new formula. It may turn out to simple.

The top-level leo-editor folder can go anywhere. There seems to be no need for the formula put the folder in lib/site-customize! Wherever it goes, we want the formula to put a symlink on the desktop (or in the home folder), which when double-clicked will execute python launchLeo.py.

The documentation must tell the user where launchLeo.py is so they can make aliases that open Leo.

[ludwigschwardt]

Brew already installs all the package files in its cellar in e.g. /usr/local/Cellar/leo/5.4, so I find that the natural place to find the Leo files.

On top of that I would just make launchLeo.py a normal executable script in /usr/local/bin via the Brew machinery, so that the user does not need to know where it is - it's on the path!

The symlink is then an icing on the cake. What about an App-like way to get to launchLeo?

[edreamleo]

@ludwigschwardt Thanks for these comments! Not sure I know enough to put them in action. Here is what I had last night:

class LeoEditor < Formula
  desc "The Leo IDE/Outliner/PIM"
  homepage "http://leoeditor.com/"
  url "https://github.com/leo-editor/leo-editor/archive/5.4.1.tar.gz"
  sha256 "2cf0f598aa46e8ced6dd7da0229157e7b523704d0a03604a4da14b715c0a232f"

  depends_on :python if MacOS.version <= :snow_leopard
  depends_on "pyqt"
  depends_on "enchant" => :recommended

  def install
    python_xy = "python2.7"
    # There is a syntax error somewhere on the next line
    # python_site_packages = lib + "#{python_xy}/site-packages"
    python_site_packages.install "leo"
    bin.install ["launchLeo.py", "profileLeo.py"]
    ln_s "#{bin}/launchLeo.py", "#{bin}/leo"
  end

  test do
    # Create, run in and delete a temporary directory.
    if system "python", "-c", "import", "leo"
      onoe "Leo FAILED"
    else
      ohai "Leo OK"
    end
  end
end

Some questions for you:

1. How should the formula install Leo in the regular place?
2. How should the formula create the symlink you suggest?
3. Is the test section bogus if leo already is installed on the user's system?

I think we may be close.

[edreamleo]

Progress! Just guessing, I changed:

    python_site_packages.install "leo"

to:

    bin.install "leo"

and now the build works:

leo-editor$ brew install leo-editor
...
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1: 2,327 files, 27.7M, built in 5 seconds

More importantly, the following opens Leo:

python /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1/bin/launchLeo.py

So it seems that question 1 is answered. That still leaves:

1. How should the formula create the symlink you suggest?
   Maybe the symlink exists in a "regular" spot, but I have no idea what this does:

   ln_s "#{bin}/launchLeo.py", "#{bin}/leo"

2. Is the test section bogus if leo already is installed on the user's system?

[edreamleo]

Maybe the symlink exists in a "regular" spot

Again, just guessing (I'm a complete MacOS noob), I found launchLeo.py in /usr/local/bin Hurray! The following works:

python /usr/local/bin/launchLeo.py

So now we are down to the last question:

Is the test section bogus if leo already is installed on the user's system?

Update: Maybe we can ignore this: the test might be bogus on my system, but it should be valid everywhere else.
Update 2: It's probably possible to ensure that the test refers to the brew version of Leo. In that case, the test should be valid on my machine as well.

We may be getting close to creating a Tap and issuing a PR.

[edreamleo]

@ludwigschwardt Your comments have made everything much clearer.

When running the brew Leo, Leo's log pane shows:

load dir: /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1/bin/leo/core
global config dir: /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1/bin/leo/config
home dir: /Users/edward
reading settings in /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1/bin/leo/config/leoSettings.leo
reading settings in /Users/edward/.leo/myLeoSettings.leo
reading settings in /Users/edward/.leo/workbook.leo

So /usr/local/bin/launchLeo.py actually launches /usr/local/Cellar/leo-editor/5.4.1/bin. At last things are starting to make sense.

Many thanks for your help.

[edreamleo]

Before I forget, this homebrew tutorial has been very helpful. I'll be using it next while I try to create the PR.

No, it's pretty confusing about taps and PR's. The following are more helpful:

• How to Create and Maintain a Tap
• How To Open a Homebrew Pull Request (and get it merged)

Now, whenever I have a question I google it. For example, that's where the links above came from.

[ludwigschwardt]

In my incarnation of the formula I just made launchLeo.py executable and then added a symlink called leo so that I could really just run it on the command line as leo. No need to remember the path to it :-)

I still wonder if we can attach a ".app bundle" or some such thing to turn Leo into a proper app which can then be linked via brew linkapps. Then it will appear in /Applications or ~/Applications like all other GUI apps, which is the least surprising thing to a Mac user (although Homebrew is already off the beaten track...).

[ludwigschwardt]

A new development...

The pyqt formula and soon the whole Qt4 edifice will be shipping off to the Homebrew boneyard... More info in Homebrew PR #1705. It appears that Qt4 has reached end-of-life in December 2015, nearly a year ago now, and the writing is on the wall. Qt5 is the only option going forward.

Since leo depends on pyqt it will have to move over to pyqt5 in order to get accepted into Homebrew. Not sure how much work that entails, although this page claims the effort is "not great".

[edreamleo]

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 3:12 AM, Ludwig Schwardt notifications@github.com
wrote:

A new development...

The pyqt formula and soon the whole Qt4 edifice will be shipping off to
the Homebrew boneyard... More info in Homebrew PR #1705
Homebrew/homebrew-core#1705. It appears that
Qt4 has reached end-of-life in December 2015, nearly a year ago now, and
the writing is on the wall. Qt5 is the only option going forward.

Since leo depends on pyqt it will have to move over to pyqt5 in order to
get accepted into Homebrew. Not sure how much work that entails, although this
page http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt5/pyqt4_differences.html
claims the effort is "not great".

​There is no effort at all for Leo. Leo can use either Qt4 or Qt5. That's
the purpose of the leo.core.leoQt module.​

Some plugins may not work with Qt4, but that should not affect the homebrew
formula.

Edward