Runtime error on windows

[fedorov]

This was experience by Ulli @ulrikew trying it out during our meeting!

[LennyN95]

Thank you @fedorov. Apparently, git is not pre-installed on windows machines as it's usually on Mac.

I don't think setting up git from a slicer extension is a good idea (if possible) as the average user likely won't expect a slicer extension to install third party programs on their system.

I see two more options. Either we specify it as dependency requirement such as we do with docker. Alternatively we can package the python packages and add them to the pypi index to avoid git.

I'll look into this after my vacation, happy to hear your thoughts on this @fedorov.

[fedorov]

As yet another option, you can make a release of that repo, and pull zipped package with the source code using wget.

But now that you mention it - the extension should check for the presence of docker on the system, and if not available - ask the user to install and point to the instructions, and not proceed until docker is detected. It doesn't make sense to do anything else until docker is detected.

[LennyN95]

Thats a Great Option @fedorov. We're planning to create releases of all our dependencies for every stable release. Binding the slicer extension to one of our stable releases (instead of latest) is also in line with our recommendation for MHub integrations in general.

I'm planing a initialization screen for a while, also because the app takes a while to load (caused by the installations of all dependent packages at startup). Adding a docker check and installation tips or at least links to the resources there looks like a good fit and is on top of the todo list for the extension.