[contribution] make test

[MarieS-WiMLDS]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I'd like to be able to run the tests very easily and quickly, without knowing what's behind, pytest or anything else.

Describe the solution you'd like

make test

Describe alternatives you've considered, if relevant

No response

Additional context

No response

[thomass-dev]

@augustebaum i remember you had a target in your local Makefile to do this?

I'd like to be able to run the tests very easily and quickly [...].

@MarieS-WiMLDS by quickly you mean in one command?

[MarieS-WiMLDS]

yes, I meant quickly accessible.

[glemaitre]

Just a thought regarding Makefile: it does not work on Windows.

Some alternatives to know about:

• spin: https://github.com/scientific-python/spin. The idea is to provide consistent developer commands across the scientific ecosystem that works and all platforms. It is used in NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn as examples
• pixi: https://pixi.sh/latest/. This is more generic tools. In addition to manage environment for instance for the CI, it provides a way to define tasks that is exactly what you need here. We give it a "spin" in skrub.

Usage as a user

spin tests

pixi run tests

I don't think it is a priority right now but it could be great to evaluate those solutions. Feel free to open a specific issues particularly for this feature.

[thomass-dev]

The makefile is only for contributors use.

[glemaitre]

The makefile is only for contributors use.

Contributors can still have Windows :). The tools mentioned are really crafted for contributors/developers tool not end-user.

[augustebaum]

That's an issue for our docs as well, since we build them using sphinx's make html. Maybe we could just use sphinx-build directly, like they explain in the docs

[thomass-dev]

For now, we all use unix-like OS compatible with Makefile and we don't have external contributors.
IMO, keep moving, and come back to your suggestion when we have to.