Issues when installing TTT on Windows

[TillMacher]

Installation of scikit-bio fails

• Issue: Installation fails when trying to install the scikit-bio dependency hdmedians on Windows
• Solution: Install C++ Build Tools (more information: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40504552/how-to-install-visual-c-build-tools)

[OndroV]

Hi Till,

Today I had to install TTT on another PC with Windows 11, Python 3.9 and got stuck at this exact point despite having the C++ Build Tools installed.
The threads were leading to the version of scikit-bio, which is required in setup.py. You require scikit-bio ==0.5.6 , which gives [Import Error: No module named numpy]. However, there were no problems with 0.5.8 version, so I changed the TTT requirements to scikit-bio >=0.5.8 and reached a successful installation of TTT using this command:
python -m pip install git+https://github.com/OndroV/TaxonTableTools_scikitversion
The functionality of this TTT installation is not yet fully tested, but my mostly-used functions work.
Was there any reason to require exactly 0.5.6?

p.s.: Perhaps it would be nice to specify which parts of the C++ Build Tools are required, because they take quite a lot of GB. I am running an older version (VS 2017) and among the Optional I have only MSVC and Windows SDK. Not sure about the current requirements, but in today's installation we eventually selected all (out of desperation :D ) before figuring out the solution with sickit-bio version.

Best,
Ondrej

[TillMacher]

Hi Onrej,
thanks for the hint! There were conflicts with other packages, so I had to require this exact version.

However, I currently don't have time for any major updates, since I'll move to another position in May and have to wrap up stuff at the moment. However, I have future plans for both TTT and APSCALE, which will simplify the installation and add new features. Currently many errors start to pop-up with version conflicts and updates of various packages... But I will not really have time for updates before summer.

best,
Till

[lmoliner]

I had the following error when trying to install TTT: "Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required"

I followed this step-by-step tutorial: https://youtu.be/Y4QxGemfNrs?si=b2qI6eDvj00gyIvf

As explained in the video, you would need to install Visual C++ 2015 because higher versions have a bug, then you will also need to install Visual Studio Build Tools 2017, which you can find here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57795314/are-visual-studio-2017-build-tools-still-available-for-download