Made a simple touch first Package manger for Pythonista

[jackatttack]

Hi all,

I’ve been building a small tool called Pipista to make installing and managing Python packages in Pythonista a bit easier.

The idea came from how confusing it can be for someone new to Pythonista to install something from PyPI, work out whether it is compatible, or download a project from GitHub. Existing tools can do far more, but I wanted something simple and touch-friendly that keeps everything in one place.

Pipista lets you:

• search PyPI and inspect a package before installing it
• review and install its dependencies
• uninstall packages cleanly
• download public GitHub repositories as editable projects
• see what Pipista manages and what is already available in Pythonista

It is deliberately cautious and aimed mostly at pure-Python packages. It won’t make every desktop Python package work on iOS, but when something is incompatible it should explain why rather than failing silently.

The standard example is the wikipedia package, which can be installed, tested and removed in a couple of taps.

The project and short installer are here:

https://github.com/jackatttack/Pipista

This is the first public beta, so I’d really welcome feedback—particularly from newer Pythonista users or anyone who has found package installation a barrier in the past.

[mmccthomas]

Simple error encountered
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/DC8F97D1-3095-4196-8CE2-91255E087D3B/Pythonista3/Documents/Pipista/pipista_app_polished.py", line 192, in deliver_error
str(exc),
NameError: free variable 'exc' referenced before assignment in enclosing scope
Chris

[jackatttack]

Thanks Chris, good catch! That was Pipista crashing while trying to display the original error. I’ve fixed it and pushed an update. Could you run the installer again, retry what you were doing, and let me know what error appears this time?

[mmccthomas]

That’s fixed the bug.
There is another issue that will fool many.
The option to view on PyPi apparently does nothing until the screen is closed.
I suggest you spawn a WebView floating screen with a close button to return to the Pipsta app.
I think most users would want to review the package on PyPi before installing.