avoid dependencies on package_data

__doc__ is handled poorly here; consider an alternate approach

meanas/VERSION

@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-0.6

meanas/VERSION.py

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+""" VERSION defintion. THIS FILE IS MANUALLY PARSED BY setup.py and REQUIRES A SPECIFIC FORMAT """
+__version__ = '''
+0.6
+'''

meanas/__init__.py

@@ -6,11 +6,14 @@ See the readme or `import meanas; help(meanas)` for more info.
 
 import pathlib
 
+from .VERSION import __version__
+
 __author__ = 'Jan Petykiewicz'
 
-with open(pathlib.Path(__file__).parent / 'VERSION', 'r') as f:
-    __version__ = f.read().strip()
 
+try:
     with open(pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent / 'README.md', 'r') as f:
         __doc__ = f.read()
+except Exception:
+    pass
 

setup.py

@@ -2,11 +2,12 @@
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
+
 with open('README.md', 'r') as f:
     long_description = f.read()
 
-with open('meanas/VERSION', 'r') as f:
-    version = f.read().strip()
+with open('meanas/VERSION.py', 'rt') as f:
+    version = f.readlines()[2].strip()
 
 setup(name='meanas',
       version=version,
@@ -18,7 +19,7 @@ setup(name='meanas',
       url='https://mpxd.net/code/jan/meanas',
       packages=find_packages(),
       package_data={
-          'meanas': ['VERSION']
+          'meanas': []
       },
       install_requires=[
             'numpy',