Rewrite installer in Python 3

[scolapasta]

This is to support dev environments / installations in Windows.

[pdurbin]

It pains me to say this, but I would suggest changing the title of this issue to "anything but Perl". Kids these days don't use it. 😢

I like Python but we should also consider Javascript, especially because since as of Java 8 there is a Javascript implementation called Nashorn we could use. Java is a hard requirement to run Dataverse. Python is only required if you want to build the docs with Sphinx or if you're hacking on geoconnect, dataverse-client-python, or miniverse. I can't think of a third language I'd suggest. Either Python or Javascript would do.

Please don't forget that it's really a Perl installer that calls into a series of Bash scripts. Let us consider if we are rewriting all those Bash scripts as well.

If the goal is truly to support Windows better, let's make sure we fully understand how well supported Python or Javascript or whatever is on Windows. I'd suggest that we check with @zhul-pku who opened #3927 and anyone who writes back on the Do you want to develop Dataverse on Windows thread I started on our mailing list.

Last thought: If we're re-writing the Dataverse installer not to use Perl, I assume we should also (in a future issue) re-write the TwoRavens installer not to use Perl: https://github.com/IQSS/TwoRavens/blob/master/install.pl

[zhul-pku]

In the case of vagrant and virtualbox is used for Dataverse development in windows environment, it seems like there is no strong needs to rewrite the perl installer and bash scripts?
If the installer needs to be rewritten, and Python and Javacript both will do, I'd prefer Python. It is more popular nowadays, I took a course of Chinese language processing in Python recently, and more familiar with.

[bjonnh]

I agree with @zhul-pku here. With vagrant (and the integration of ubuntu in the last windows), I'm not certain there is a need to rewrite anything.

There may be a need to clean-up and separate scripts by roles, and config. So we could eventually use the same scripts easily for dev and production. If it needs to be rewritten, I would go with python, because that's what I know best, but I don't think it matters much as long as it is working and doesn't add too many dependencies just to run an installer (which is why I will not vehemently defend porting the installer to anything else than bash and perl).