Flask on Windows and the case of the Pip install failing

At work I have a Mac and back home I have a Linux (Fedora) and Windows 10 machines. I started a Flask project on the Mac and then put it in a Github repo which I then cloned on my Windows 10 machine. And this is where I encountered the problem of pip failing to install the modules. I tried two variations to the call:

1. > pip install -r requirements.txt
2. > python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

This is with Python 3 and both will spit out a "Permission Denied" error relating to your appdata/Temp folder. The contents of my requirements.txt is pretty tame.

Here's a partial.

Flask==0.11.1
Flask-RESTful==0.3.5
Flask-Webpack==0.1.0
get==0.0.0
itsdangerous==0.24

It fails right on the get module. It say something like it can access the temp folder on your Windows machine which put me on a wild goose chase because the error isn't fucking related to permissions. I figured out the fix after watching the temp folder while pip attempted to install the modules.

Apparently, the Windows pip version does something really weird with the setup.py and/or egginfo where it attempts a build on a empty setup folder for the get module causing the error. The fix is to just change the version. In this case for get==0.0.0 to get==0.0.20.

The pip install command should go off with no problems now.

Stop asking me which one: Flask vs Web.py

I'm writing this entry because I've been asked the same question at events and on the internet too many times: "Which one to use, flask vs web.py?" I'm also doing this to clarify my reasons on why I like Flask better than web.py.

Disclaimer: this is more of an personal opinion rather than a more true technical comparison.

Flask and Web.py are these Python micro-architectures for building web sites and applications. Django is also a Python framework for building websites but it's whale huge so Django is out.

Age
The age of the framework matters because it helps you "find stuff" for it; find stuff, I mean like StackOverflow pages, blog entries, github projects and such. Also it makes for a good chance that someone already has solved your problem and was good enough to post it somewhere on the web.

Web.py is older and Flask is a bit more recent.

I like new.

Code-wise
Programmers and coders eventually develop a particular "taste" on how to write or organize code. This is another bias of mine because I prefer how Flask's code looks vs Web.py's.

Let's take both framework's "hello world" examples.

This is Flask's way:

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return "Hello World!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

This is Web.py's way:

import web
        
urls = (
    '/(.*)', 'hello'
)
app = web.application(urls, globals())

class hello:        
    def GET(self, name):
        if not name: 
            name = 'World'
        return 'Hello, ' + name + '!'

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

I like annotations better than route lists but that's just me.

Use cases
I have a pretty simple use case because I only run these things in a Google app engine instance. Both flask and web.py are supported by GAE.

Here's a flask starter for GAE and here's the web.py cook book page for GAE.

I still like Flask.

In the end
Personally, I think the question is relatively moot since both micro-frameworks do roughly the same thing. Although, web.py is older it is still actively developed and it's community is still ticking. Flask is newer but it's still a bit rough around the edges.

I'm a Flask kind of guy.