PR: Do not import spyder before install_repo in bootstrap.py

[mrclary]

Issue(s) Resolved

Fixes #19832

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[mrclary]

/show binder

[github-actions]

👈 Launch a Binder instance on this branch

[mrclary]

@ccordoba12 @dalthviz, Spyder now launches in Binder, but there are still a few problems. The following missing dependencies are not installed in the environment and I'm not sure why.

[mrclary]

Okay, it seems that Binder behaves differently when built from the 5.x branch vs. the master branch. I'm not sure exactly why that is.

The binder link above, in this PR, on 5.x, results in the repository copied to a "spyder" directory in the home directory and missing dependencies in the environment. The shortcut on the desktop is labeled with 5.x.

I cherry-picked this PR's changes onto the master branch in my fork and built the binder from there and found that the repository is copied to the home directory and all dependencies are installed and Spyder launches and runs fine. The shortcut on the desktop is labeled with 4.x.

So I suppose everything is okay if run from the master branch. But it seems that some idiosyncrasies should be cleaned up at some point.

[ccordoba12]

Spyder now launches in Binder, but there are still a few problems. The following missing dependencies are not installed in the environment and I'm not sure why.

@mrclary, we've talked about this before but probably you forgot it. So, we create Binder links for PRs through an associated repo to avoid rebuilding the Binder instance on every PR commit, which is very inefficient:

https://github.com/spyder-ide/binder-environments

However, I haven't had time to update it in a long time, hence the missing dependencies.

I propose to do the following to improve the situation regarding Binder:

• Remove the binder folder in this repo to use the one in binder-environments instead (there's a branch on it per branch here).
• Update the 5.x, master and spyder-stable dependencies in binder-environments with the latest changes here. Right now, those branches are separate, but you can push directly to them and then check that the Binder image is built as expected by clicking on the launch | binder button of the Readme associated to each branch.
• Create a subrepo for binder-environments in external-deps and sync it with the corresponding branch here.
• Change test_dependencies_for_binder_in_sync to do use external-deps/binder-environments/binder/environment.yml instead.
• Add a section in CONTRIBUTING.md explaining how to add/update a dependency in binder-environments. Perhaps we should start merging from 5.x to master on that repo so that contributors don't have to open two PRs there.
• Remove the launch | binder button in our Readme and add a new section instead called Run Spyder in your browser (or something similar). That should contain a small explanation of what Binder is and three buttons (you can create custom Binder buttons here):
  • launch | stable version: That will use the link of the Binder button in https://github.com/spyder-ide/binder-environments/tree/spyder-stable.
  • launch | 5.x: It'll use the link in https://github.com/spyder-ide/binder-environments/tree/5.x
  • launch | master: It'll use the link in https://github.com/spyder-ide/binder-environments/tree/master
• Add a new instruction in RELEASE.md so that our release manager don't forget to update the dependencies of the spyder-stable branch in binder-environments after a release.

This way we'd make sure that binder-environments is always up to date and it could be used reliably by users.

@mrclary, I think this would be a cool project for you to take on. Besides, it'd be great if you could work on it because I'm really busy with other things.

[ccordoba12]

Thanks @mrclary! I'm going to merge this because it also fixes an error where the Internal console is hidden at startup on DEV mode, which I use lot when debugging things in Spyder.