Installing package without recompiling sage from source
I installed the latest binary distribution (Sage 8.0) on Ubuntu 16.04. Then I tried to install an additional package using
sage -i gap_packages
Many hours later, the command is still running. It appears to be recompiling all of Sage from source (starting with GCC). Is this the expected behavior? Aren't there binary versions of the packages available?
Sadly not. But on Ubuntu, there is now an apt-package available (needs zesty (17.04)). There is a hope that the optional packages will also be available in the repo.
In the current state of Sage, this is one (strong) argument for installing it from source. Also, if you want to develop for Sage, you will have to have a full development tree... I think that the ability to install "binary" packages is both desirable and difficult to do. It may be doable on a given distribution (e. g. Debian, Ubuntu orErik Bray's Windows port), provided that the packagers maintain strict compatibility between their tools for Sage distribution and their "binary" packages. But maintaining this compatibility will be hard work...