Noetic Python 2 dependency on wxtools

[sloretz]

It looks like the noetic source entry for actionlib has a package.xml that depends on the Python 2 rosdep key python-wxtools.

actionlib/actionlib_tools/package.xml

Line 24 in c9d442a

<exec_depend>python-wxtools</exec_depend>

I don't think there is an equivalent rosdep key for Python 3. Can the dependency be eliminated?

[130s]

Not entirely sure but https://stackoverflow.com/a/20614692/577001 says wxpython 4, which seems to be already available via pip, is compatible for both Python 2 and 3. Today I see python-wxtools for Ubuntu Focal is 3.0.2. If I'm correctly seeing the situation, one way to go may be to make a dep rule for focal for pip?

Obviously "cleaner" option might be to update ax{server, client}.py to replace wx with something else (in a similar way done for core GUI tools using qt when rqt was introduced). Looks like those are very light weight GUI so I imagine the coversion will be not hard.

[sloretz]

If I'm correctly seeing the situation, one way to go may be to make a dep rule for focal for pip?

I don't think debian packages can depend on pip packages though. The places where wx is imported would fail if the only thing someone did was install ros-noetic-actionlib.

[130s]

Ah you're right.

Btw not a solution to this issue, but I found #129 is related.

[sloretz]

@mjcarroll friendly ping. It looks like actionlib_tools is released in Noetic with a Python 2 depedency. Mind removing it?

https://github.com/ros-gbp/actionlib-release/blob/debian/ros-noetic-actionlib-tools_1.13.0-1_focal/package.xml#L24

[mjcarroll]

I'll take a look @sloretz, thanks for the reminder.

[sloretz]

@mjcarroll Might be able to use https://packages.debian.org/buster/python3-wxgtk4.0, but will need a rosdep key

ros/rosdistro#25075 (comment)