Revise pygmt development installation instructions (#865)

Ensure that users can install the development version of PyGMT
without getting a `LookupError`. Also update instructions on
installing pygmt from conda/pip. Some changes include:

- Added a quickstart section so people can get up and running quicker!
- Split some things up into subsections to be clearer
- Point out what are recommended or optional steps

* Set fallback scm version to 0+unknown

Co-authored-by: Dongdong Tian <[email protected]>

Author: weiji14

doc/install.rst

@@ -14,34 +14,64 @@ Installing
     <https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/c/questions/pygmt-q-a>`__.
 
 
+Quickstart
+----------
+
+The fastest way to install PyGMT is with the
+`conda <https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/index.html>`__
+package manager which takes care of setting up a virtual environment, as well
+as the installation of GMT and all the dependencies PyGMT depends on::
+
+    conda create --name pygmt --channel conda-forge pygmt
+
+To activate the virtual environment, you can do::
+
+    conda activate pygmt
+
+After this, check that everything works by running the following in a Python
+interpreter (e.g. in a Jupyter notebook)::
+
+    import pygmt
+    pygmt.show_versions()
+
+You are now ready to make you first figure!
+Start by looking at the tutorials on our sidebar, good luck!
+
+.. note::
+
+    The sections below provide more detailed, step by step instructions to
+    installing and testing PyGMT for those who may have a slightly different
+    setup.
+
 Which Python?
 -------------
 
-You'll need **Python 3.7 or greater** to run PyGMT. Old Python versions may
-work, but there is no guarantee that PyGMT will work as expected with old versions.
+PyGMT is tested to run on **Python 3.7 or greater**. Older Python versions may
+work, but there is no guarantee that PyGMT will behave as expected.
 
-We recommend using the `Anaconda <https://www.anaconda.com/distribution>`__ Python
-distribution to ensure you have all dependencies installed and the ``conda``
-package manager available.
+We recommend using the `Anaconda <https://www.anaconda.com/distribution>`__
+Python distribution to ensure you have all dependencies installed and the
+``conda`` package manager available.
 Installing Anaconda does not require administrative rights to your computer and
 doesn't interfere with any other Python installations in your system.
 
 
 Which GMT?
 ----------
 
-PyGMT requires Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) version 6 as a minimum, which is the latest
-released version that can be found at
+PyGMT requires Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) version 6 as a minimum, which is the
+latest released version that can be found at
 the `GMT official site <https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org>`__.
-We need the latest GMT (>=6.1.1) since there are many changes being made to GMT itself in
-response to the development of PyGMT, mainly the new
+We need the latest GMT (>=6.1.1) since there are many changes being made to GMT
+itself in response to the development of PyGMT, mainly the new
 `modern execution mode <https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/latest/cookbook/introduction.html#modern-and-classic-mode>`__.
 
-Compiled conda packages of GMT for Linux, macOS and Windows are provided through
-`conda-forge <https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/gmt>`__.
+Compiled conda packages of GMT for Linux, macOS and Windows are provided
+through `conda-forge <https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/gmt>`__.
 Advanced users can also
 `build GMT from source <https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt/blob/master/BUILDING.md>`__
-instead, which is not so recommended but we would love to get feedback from anyone who tries.
+instead, which is not so recommended but we would love to get feedback from
+anyone who tries.
 
 We recommend following the instructions further on to install GMT 6.
 
@@ -58,61 +88,97 @@ PyGMT requires the following libraries:
 
 The following are optional (but recommended) dependencies:
 
-* `IPython <https://ipython.org/>`__: For embedding the figures in Jupyter notebooks.
+* `IPython <https://ipython.org/>`__: For embedding the figures in Jupyter
+notebooks.
 
 
 Installing GMT and other dependencies
 -------------------------------------
 
-Before installing PyGMT, we must install GMT itself along with the other dependencies.
-The easiest way to do this is using the ``conda`` package manager.
+Before installing PyGMT, we must install GMT itself along with the other
+dependencies. The easiest way to do this is via the ``conda`` package manager.
 We recommend working in an isolated
 `conda environment <https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/tasks/manage-environments.html>`__
-to avoid issues with competing versions of its dependencies.
+to avoid issues with conflicting versions of dependencies.
 
 First, we must configure conda to get packages from the
 `conda-forge channel <https://conda-forge.org/>`__::
 
     conda config --prepend channels conda-forge
 
-Now we can create a new conda environment with Python and all our dependencies installed
-(we'll call it ``pygmt`` but you can change it to whatever you want)::
+Now we can create a new conda environment with Python and all our dependencies
+installed (we'll call it ``pygmt`` but feel free to change it to whatever you
+want)::
 
      conda create --name pygmt python=3.9 pip numpy pandas xarray netcdf4 packaging gmt
 
-Activate the environment by running::
+Activate the environment by running the following (**do not forget this step!**)::
 
     conda activate pygmt
 
-From now on, all commands will take place inside the conda virtual environment and won't
-affect your default installation.
+From now on, all commands will take place inside the conda virtual environment
+called 'pygmt' and won't affect your default 'base' installation.
 
 
 Installing PyGMT
 ----------------
 
-Now that you have GMT installed and your conda environment activated, you can
-use ``conda`` to install the latest release of PyGMT from `conda-forge <https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/pygmt>`__::
+Now that you have GMT installed and your conda virtual environment activated,
+you can install PyGMT using any of the following methods:
+
+Using conda (recommended)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+This installs the latest stable release of PyGMT from
+`conda-forge <https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/pygmt>`__::
 
     conda install pygmt
 
-or use ``pip`` to install from `PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/pygmt>`__::
+Using pip
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+This installs the latest stable release from
+`PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/pygmt>`__::
 
     pip install pygmt
 
-Alternatively, you can install the development version from the GitHub repository::
+Alternatively, you can install the latest development version from
+`TestPyPI <https://test.pypi.org/project/pygmt>`__::
+
+    pip install --pre --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple/ --extra-index-url https://pypi.org/simple pygmt
 
-    pip install https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/pygmt/archive/master.zip
+or from PyGMT's `GitHub repository <https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/pygmt>`__ 
+(slower as it downloads the whole archive)::
 
-This will allow you to use the ``pygmt`` library from Python.
+    pip install git+https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/pygmt.git#egg=pygmt
+
+Any of the above methods (conda/pip) should allow you to use the ``pygmt``
+library from Python.
 
 
 Testing your install
 --------------------
 
+Quick check
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+To ensure that PyGMT and its depedencies are installed correctly, run the
+following in your Python interpreter::
+
+    import pygmt
+    pygmt.show_versions()
+
+Or run this in the command line::
+
+    python -c "import pygmt; pygmt.show_versions()"
+
+
+Full test (optional)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
 PyGMT ships with a full test suite.
-You can run our tests after you install it but you will need a few extra dependencies as
-well (be sure to have your conda env activated)::
+You can run our tests after you install it but you will need a few extra
+dependencies as well (be sure to have your conda environment activated)::
 
     conda install pytest pytest-mpl ipython
 
@@ -132,9 +198,9 @@ This can happen if you have multiple versions of GMT installed.
 
 You can tell PyGMT exactly where to look for ``libgmt`` by setting the
 ``GMT_LIBRARY_PATH`` environment variable.
-This should be set to the directory where ``libgmt.so``, ``libgmt.dylib`` or ``gmt.dll``
-can be found for Linux, macOS and Windows respectively.
-e.g. in a terminal run::
+This should be set to the directory where ``libgmt.so``, ``libgmt.dylib`` or
+``gmt.dll`` can be found for Linux, macOS and Windows respectively.
+e.g. on a command line, run::
 
     # Linux/macOS
     export GMT_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/anaconda3/envs/pygmt/lib

setup.py

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 INSTALL_REQUIRES = ["numpy", "pandas", "xarray", "netCDF4", "packaging"]
 # Configuration for setuptools-scm
 SETUP_REQUIRES = ["setuptools_scm"]
-USE_SCM_VERSION = {"local_scheme": "node-and-date"}
+USE_SCM_VERSION = {"local_scheme": "node-and-date", "fallback_version": "unknown"}
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     setup(