As one of my image processing software (mainly based on NumPy, SciPy, guidata and guiqwt) is being limited by the "2GB per application" memory limit due to the fact that I'm using a 32bit build of Python on Windows, I'm currently thinking of switching to Python 64bit. That's why I've been recently investigating the 64bit/Windows/Python ecosystem.
1. The NumPy/SciPy building issue on Windows 64bit.
According to experienced developers, there is no decent open-source (free) Fortran compiler for the Windows 64bit platform. As a consequence, it's impossible to build NumPy or SciPy on this platform using only free and open-source tools. That's why there is no official Windows 64bit binaries for these two libraries. The only ready-to-use installers available out there were prepared by Christoph Gohlke (using Intel Fortran compiler, a.k.a. 'ifort') and these are clearly unofficial binaries. Furthermore, Christoph has built two different installers for NumPy: one unoptimized and one optimized with the Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL), hence providing better performance. And Gohlke's SciPy 64bit binary package (the only one available freely online) require NumPy MKL. The problem is that, according to Christoph Gohlke, the MKL license does not allow me (or anyone else) to redistribute these binaries, unless I have purchased such a license. It is still unclear to me if the end user would also require this license too. Hopefully no. Let's assume that. Besides, after reading carefully the Intel MKL License terms, I'm quite sure that I can redistribute the MKL-based NumPy built because it's just runtime redistribution. So I think I will purchase an Intel Fortran Compiler license (including MKL) to be able to rebuild NumPy and SciPy in the near future but in the meantime I will just redistribute the packages built by Christoph Gohlke.
2. The distribution: how? when?
I'm planning on releasing publicly a completely free 64bit Python distribution by the end of 2012 (and I'll probably release a 32bit version too). To achieve this, I can't go on with Python(x,y): the concept has its limits and it's beginning to be difficult to maintain. So I'm thinking of something completely different: a portable Python distribution with a built-in package manager which would be able to install/uninstall Python packages to/from the distribution using standard Python installers (made with the standard Python library 'distutils') - support for eggs won't be added as I had very disappointing results with their unconventional way of installing packages, sometimes messing with the sys.path list. This portable distribution would also embed some useful tools like SciTE, WinMerge or TortoiseHg. But, unfortunately, as mentioned above (point 1.), there won't be any integrated C/C++/Fortran compiler in the 64bit edition (I'll probably integrate MinGW with gfortran in the 32bit edition of the distribution).
3. First experiments...
I've already done a bunch of tests and this is working great. I just have to take the time to write scripts automating the distribution creation process from scratch: installing the official Python distribution (.msi file) to a folder, install PyQt by unzipping the official NSIS installer, create the batch scripts for running Python (or Spyder) in the appropriate environment, and so on. My current portable distribution test is able to run Spyder with all basic scientific packages. That is very interesting: a complete and ready-to-use (without any installation requirement) scientific Python distribution on a USB key!
To be continued...
Update
This new project has now a name: this is WinPython. Check out the website for more informations.
Spyder is a free open-source development environment for the Python programming language providing MATLAB-like features in a simple and light-weighted software, available for all major platforms (Windows, Linux, MacOS X).
