Precompiled wheels for all operating systems about openslide-python

[bgilbert]

xref #126 and #144. If there's a relatively clean way to do this within GitHub Actions, a PR would be great. Thanks!

[bgilbert]

Yes, please do. I'd prefer to use explicit build steps rather than having the Action do it for us, but if that turns out to be too complex, the Action could be a reasonable alternative.

[andreped]

xref #126 and #144. If there's a relatively clean way to do this within GitHub Actions, a PR would be great. Thanks!

@bgilbert I can make an attempt later today and make a PR.

[andreped]

@bgilbert Made a PR which resolves this issue: #188

[andreped]

Oh, I just went through the proposed edits you mentioned here, which looks very similar to mine. What exactly were the issues? Seemed to work fine in my case. At least when testing the precompiled wheel on my external macOS. I guess you are talking about backward-compatibility on older linux-versions, or?

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EDIT: Should've read the discussion more carefully here. What exactly is the reason why precompiled wheels (with the current solution) might be a bad idea?

[bgilbert]

Yup, the wheels built by that PR failed to load on older Linux versions, which seemed to defeat the point. As I understand it, we'd need to build in a special container, but that should be doable.

There are two separate questions: whether to build OpenSlide Python wheels for Linux and macOS, and whether to bundle OpenSlide (the actual C library) into those wheels. I'm in favor of the former, but the latter is complex (OpenSlide has a lot of dependencies) and I'd consider it out of scope.

[andreped]

Yup, the wheels built by that PR failed to load on older Linux versions

What we often do is to build on the oldest relevant Linux version, as python packages tend to be forward compatible on Ubuntu. However, it is true that there is no guarantee. Manylinux solution might be the best fit.

However, I see that there exists an Action that can be used for exactly this purpose:
https://github.com/marketplace/actions/python-wheels-manylinux-build

If I understand correctly, building inside this container, it should work as intended, right? Shall i make an attempt? I can make commits to the same branch as in the PR.