Add an alternate requirements file for better compatibility

[devindkim]

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Background

Devs and aspiring contributors frequently have dependency conflicts when trying to clone the repo and build dependencies for the first time.

Adding an alternate requirements file:

• Removes package versions, allowing pip to resolve dependency conflicts with less strict versioning
• Explicitly adds packages to be installed, that was being missed by pip and resulting in 'module not found' errors

Changes

Add a new requirements-alternate.txt

Test Plan

Other contributors and myself have found success with this requirements file, as opposed to the main one.

Change Safety

• [x] I have added tests to cover my changes
• [x] I have considered potential risks and mitigations for my changes

[nponeccop]

What are the reasons it worked? I don't think it's good to accept PRs even if their authors are unaware which exact problem they solve and how.

[devindkim]

Thanks for the feedback, I added additional reasoning and context.

[nponeccop]

There are missing deps in the requirements.txt, which are fixed by other PRs such as #482 that adds Pillow.

So, I guess you should check that fixed file against your file to see the difference. And if more dependencies are missing, add them in a separate PRs.

Having dependencies pinned is a good practice. So, the right way to do it is pinned dependencies with virtual envs, where conflicts with other projects are not possible. Pinned versions simplify bug reporting and diagnostics, so having two otherwise identical requirements.txt one with the pinning and one without it is not a good idea. So, I guess we need to have them always pinned and instead offer venv as the right way to do it and to avoid conflicts, and suggest deleting versions from a text file as a last resort for advanced users (who would be skilled to remove the versions themselves).

What do you think?

[waynehamadi]

thanks for your efforts, it should probably be called requirements-dev.txt, we already have a lot of PRs with requirements-dev suggestions

[p-i-]

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[waynehamadi]

Hey @devindkim the problem is we can't let pip decide, because sometimes it decides things that end up not working so we can't guarantee it's going to work.

We need to all work with the same requirements to guarantee it works for everyone