scikits.sparse installation(or build) fails on windows and anaconda (spyder)

[libnithomas]

Hello,

I have been trying to install scikits.sparse module in python. I feel that the module I obtained needs compilation. I guessed the same as it doesn't contain .py files, instead there is a cholmod.c and a cholmod.pyx file in the sparse directory. I attempted to do this in 2 ways,
One from Spyder, by first adding the module path to PYTHONPATH manager and then including the following lines in the program
import pyximport
pyximport.install()
from scikits.sparse.cholmod import cholesky
This gave me the error
ImportError: Building module scikits.sparse.cholmod failed: ["distutils.errors.CompileError: command 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\BIN\x86_amd64\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2\n"]
Second directly in Python 3.6,
I installed Microsoft Visual C++ build tools 14.0 (from Visual Studio 2015), which looked like completed installation, but the final status said, It may not have installed properly.
Then I updated pip, installed cython, scipy and some other dependency of scikits.sparse then on attempting installation like th following,
python e:\python\scikits.sparse-0.2\setup.py install
from command prompt returned an error,
Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\BIN\x86_amd64\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2
Is there anyway to compile and build scikits.sparse in windows?
Alternatively, is it possible to compile it in a Linux system to a .whl and then install it easily in windows?
I have downloaded the package from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/scikits.sparse

Thanks in advance.
Libni Thomas

[jor-]

Hello,

first of all scikits.sparse is an outdated package. The current packages is scikits-sparse and can be obtained from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/scikit-sparse.

I do not think it will work to compile a wheel for Linux and than use it in Windows because the binding to suitesparse will not work.

Furthermore I do not have any experience using scikit-sparse in Windows and can not give any support for Windows because I do not have it. Maybe https://github.com/jlblancoc/suitesparse-metis-for-windows will help you to install suitesparse. If you have a working installation, please write how you did it.

[ghost]

Note that you should be able to use https://github.com/scikit-umfpack/scikit-umfpack-wheels to build wheels for all platforms (just fork the repository here). Yes, this does include windows, if you change setup.py to use the numpy.distutils.system_info.get_info('umfpack_info') function (except change the library name to 'choldmod' of course).

[ghost]

@Jor I can build wheels if you grant me access to this organization and pypi. I also need to make a slight modification to setup.py.

[jor-]

@ghost:

numpy.distutils.system_info.get_info('cholmod') does return an empty dict for me because the info for this library are not implemented in NumPy (https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/v1.14.0/numpy/distutils/system_info.py).

What modifications to setup.py do you suggest?

[EmJay276]

I also had issues with this package and windows, I wrote a short guide how to install it:
https://github.com/EmJay276/scikit-sparse

[QWQY-kara]

Hello, why can't I install simulation, it shows

ERROR: Failed building wheel for scikit-sparse
Failed to build scikit-sparse
ERROR: Could not build wheels for scikit-sparse, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects