look into use of wheels for networked machines

[atpolonsky]

can we utilize simple pip install with our released .whl files for a networked system running AS?

[atpolonsky]

no demand signal currently to support this feature, which would duplicate efforts. PyPI is still something we wan to use

[atpolonsky]

@lambjames18 is there a way we can make "pip install pytribeam" run the install_script.bat?

[lambjames18]

There used to be a lot more "hacking" of setup.py scripts that run during a pip install, but that is largely frowned upon these days due to security risks and instabilities. Seems like getting things to run properly can be a pain.

I'll propose an alternative: wire in another CLI command "pytribeam_setup" or similar that uninstalls/reinstalls all the packages from the wheelhouse and performs any other commands we want it to (check microscope connection, determine what hardware is present, other ideas?).

Potential workflow:

pip install pytribeam
pytribeam_setup

# or with uv...

uv add pytribeam
uv run pytribeam_setup

[lambjames18]

A quick test of installing pytribeam via uv on a network machine:

~> mkdir test_pytribeam
~> cd test_pytribeam/
~/test_pytribeam> uv venv
Using CPython 3.13.13
Creating virtual environment at: .venv
Activate with: source .venv/bin/activate.fish
~/test_pytribeam> source .venv/bin/activate.fish
(test_pytribeam) ~/test_pytribeam> uv init
Initialized project `test-pytribeam`
(test_pytribeam) ~/test_pytribeam> uv add pytribeam
Resolved 4 packages in 1.88s
Prepared 3 packages in 574ms
Installed 3 packages in 18ms
 + pytribeam==0.1.4
 + pytz==2026.3.post1
 + schema==0.7.8
(test_pytribeam) ~/test_pytribeam (main)> pytribeam_info
pytribeam module version: v0.1.4
  Maximum supported .yml schema version: v1.0
  Supported Thermo Fisher AutoScript versions: v4.8.1, v4.10.0, v4.11.0
  Supported Laser API versions: v2.2.1

Installed environment:
  AutoScript:
    Distribution metadata: not detected, version: not detected
    Import package autoscript_sdb_microscope_client: not importable

  Laser API:
    Distribution metadata: not detected, version: not detected
    Import package Laser: not importable
    Import package Laser.PythonControl: not importable

All CLI commands work via installing from UV (minus AS import issues). Worth noting that our dependencies only includes pytz and schema at the moment, which technically is not true (e.g. we also depend on numpy).

Steps needed:

1. Update toml to include actual dependency list
2. Build pytribeam_setup CLI command to handle everything that pip/uv can;t handle

[lambjames18]

Did some more testing on pytribeam/tree/toml_updates (see 195163c). Testing on my mac, the cli command pytribeam_setup successfully installs autoscript wheels locally (I provide a folder of them to the CLI command) and pytribeam_info displays that autoscript is importable.

Next step is to install via uv on a computer with a simulator running and see if the uv environment is able to talk to autoscript. If so, that means we should be able to bypass the enthought python distribution entirely (and might be able to get around the python version issues between autoscript versions!).

> pytribeam_info
pytribeam module version: v0.1.5.dev17
  Maximum supported .yml schema version: v1.0
  Supported Thermo Fisher AutoScript versions: v4.8.1, v4.10.0, v4.11.0
  Supported Laser API versions: v2.2.1

Installed environment:
  AutoScript:
    Distribution metadata: not detected, version: not detected
    Import package autoscript_sdb_microscope_client: not importable

  Laser API:
    Distribution metadata: not detected, version: not detected
    Import package Laser: not importable
    Import package Laser.PythonControl: not importable

> pytribeam_setup -h
usage: pytribeam_setup [-h] [-f FOLDER] [--installer {auto,pip,uv}] [--upgrade]

Install AutoScript packages in the local environment.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FOLDER, --folder FOLDER
                        Path to the folder containing the autoscript wheels.
  --installer {auto,pip,uv}
                        Installer to use. 'pip' uses the current Python interpreter via `python -m pip`; 'uv' uses `uv pip install --python`; 'auto' attempts to
                        choose a reasonable default.
  --upgrade             Pass --upgrade to the installer.

> pytribeam_setup -f .../autoscript_48_wheels --installer uv
Using Python interpreter: .../pytribeam/.venv/bin/python
Using installer: uv
Wheels to install:
  .../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_core-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl
  .../autoscript_sdb_microscope_client-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl
  .../autoscript_toolkit-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl
  .../thermoscientific_logging-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl
Installing AutoScript wheels with command:
uv pip install --python .../pytribeam/.venv/bin/python .../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_core-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl .../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_sdb_microscope_client-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl .../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_toolkit-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl .../autoscript_48_wheels/thermoscientific_logging-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl
Resolved 4 packages in 11ms
Prepared 4 packages in 75ms
Installed 4 packages in 29ms
 + autoscript-core==5.17.0 (from file:.../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_core-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl)
 + autoscript-sdb-microscope-client==4.8.1 (from file:.../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_sdb_microscope_client-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl)
 + autoscript-toolkit==4.8.1 (from file:.../autoscript_48_wheels/autoscript_toolkit-4.8.1-py3-none-any.whl)
 + thermoscientific-logging==5.17.0 (from file:.../autoscript_48_wheels/thermoscientific_logging-5.17.0-py3-none-any.whl)

> pytribeam_info
pytribeam module version: v0.1.5.dev17
  Maximum supported .yml schema version: v1.0
  Supported Thermo Fisher AutoScript versions: v4.8.1, v4.10.0, v4.11.0
  Supported Laser API versions: v2.2.1

Installed environment:
  AutoScript:
    Distribution metadata: detected, version: 4.8.1
    Import package autoscript_sdb_microscope_client: available

  Laser API:
    Distribution metadata: not detected, version: not detected
    Import package Laser: not importable
    Import package Laser.PythonControl: not importable

[lambjames18]

Was able to run the test suite on a windows PC with the simulator running without the Enthought python distribution. Successful workflow (pseudo code):

git clone pytribeam
cd pytribeam
uv sync --all-extras
activate venv
pytribeam_setup --folder path/to/autoscript/wheels
python local_ci.py

Note that pytribeam_setup does not modify the toml, so any subsequent uv sync commands will remove the autoscript packages and the user will need to run pytribeam_setup again.