Seeking feedback: QEP 179, Turning Plugin Management into Actual Package Management

[s-m-e]

I hope this is the right place to ask - my apologies if it is not: I am currently running a QGIS Enhancement Proposal (QEP) for turning plugin management into actual package management. As part of this process, I am looking for existing QGIS plugins and plugin developers who could significantly benefit from the proposed ideas and concepts. In a nutshell, I am proposing to allow to package QGIS plugins as regular Python wheels and/or conda packages - with all relevant packaging features such as proper Python package dependencies and binary extensions. Looking at this project's source code, it appears to be a good candidate for greatly benefiting from such features. If you find this work interesting and potentially relevant for your plugin, I am rather curious about your opinion. Among other issues, there appears to be some serious doubt about the existence of actual use cases for the proposed changes in QGIS among its core developers. Besides, the proposed work may also "confuse plugin developers". Feedback is therefore highly welcome.

[nkarasiak]

Hi @s-m-e !
Wow, that would be a huge improvement for Qgis and something which is really expected from people like me and overall from gis users I think.
If I can help it will be with pleasure.

I really think we need this package management, this will render Qgis way more powerfull. I've already not published plugins because there were some pip libraries to install.

Thank you

[s-m-e]

@nkarasiak You can help by commenting directly in the QEP discussion: (a) Please describe your use cases, e.g. the plugins that you could not publish. (b) Please demonstrate that the proposed solution does not "confuse" you as a developer. (c) I'd also be interested to know if you could benefit from C / C++ / Cython / Fortran / etc. extensions directly in QGIS plugins and/or where you can see their potential. Thanks!