Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is the incantation.
`uvx ` and you're done. You don't even need to install the tool first.
The ephemeral environment that uv creates is as much an "installation" as the permanent one doing it manually.
A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
161–170 of 190 posts
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
These kinds of histrionics are really uncalled for. Virtual environments are easy to work with. https://chriswarrick.com/blog/2018/09/04/python-virtual-envi... is a solid tutorial.
Virtual environments are an incomplete solution at best. In particular, they really don't help much with the use case of wanting to install a tool : if you're installing a tool and not just setting up a development environment for working on a specific project with its dependencies, then you probably want to make that tool usable without activating its venv. The virtual environment capabilities shipped with Python it…
> then you probably want to make that tool usable without activating its venv. The virtual environment capabilities shipped with Python itself don't really have any affordances for that.
The only reason it isn't "usable" is because the wrapper script isn't on your system's path. Unless your tools actually depend on venv-related environment variables being set (for example, because they make subprocess calls and assume that `'python'` will use the currently running Python when they should correctly be using `sys.executable`), which IMX is very rare, you don't ever actually have to activate a venv to do anything with it. In particular, you don't need to activate it to use its REPL; you can instead directly specify the path to its Python executable.
The missing affordance basically looks like `ln -s path/to/venv/bin/tool ~/.local/bin`. Which is a big part of what Pipx does for you. (And once I realized that, I started using Pipx's vendored shared copy of pip: https://zahlman.github.io/posts/2025/01/07/python-packaging-...)
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it. Then you just install the tool outside of venv? then it's installed for your user account.
But then all the tool's dependencies have to play nice with the dependencies of all your other unrelated Python-based tools. One thing you can do (I'm not saying it's user friendly) is set up the tool in a virtualenv and then set up an alias like alias foo-tool=/home/blah blah/tools/something/env/bin/python -m foo-tool
Or you can make a symlink from your PATH, which is how Pipx does it.
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
`uvx ` and you're done. You don't even need to install the tool first.
The ephemeral environment that uv creates is as much an "installation" as the permanent one doing it manually.
The fact that you called one "ephemeral" and the other "permanent" makes me think you contradicted your own point.
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
do you still ride?
Only e-bikes in the city, haha! Banned by order of the wife since we have a young newborn. "When the kids go off to college" she says knowing full well that I know that 20 years without and getting on in my sixties will kill me instantly.
I used to know a guy who had a 45 minute commute who planned for ages to commute by autogyro - had spoken to farmers to get use of a field near his work to land etc.
Eventually his wife said "fine, commute by motorbike" - which was the original intention all along!
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 914/4 was a four cylinder VW built by Karman, the 914/6 a six cylinder built by Porsche in Zuffenhausen.
and unsurprisingly article authors one is a 4 cyl vw but he keeps insisting "This is a Porsche"
Probably because the author’s U. S. title says “Porsche”. What is your disagreement?
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ephemeral environment that uv creates is as much an "installation" as the permanent one doing it manually.
The fact that you called one "ephemeral" and the other "permanent" makes me think you contradicted your own point.
No, I just don't think the word "install" has the same connotations that you apparently think it does.
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whatever happened to Kate?
Thanks for asking. Kate developed severe asthma, to the point where she was taking prednisone every day and started carrying a portable breathing machine. Eventually she succumbed to her illness. Her many friends, including myself, miss her dearly, but her memory lives on in all of us. (Usually I would not share this kind of personal medical information in public, but Kate passed on nearly 50 years ago, and I didn't…
Sorry to hear it, but at the same time those are great stories to remember her by. No matter one’s beliefs, we all live on in the memories of those who knew us.
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Make sure you don't have anything else relying on Python because they will probably never work again. This is why when I see some clever open source tool discussed on HN and I go to the repo and see it's written in Python I close the browser window and pretend I never saw it. Yes I know there are ways to protect yourself when using Python in much the same way that lead-lined glove boxes protect you when working wit…
Any project written in a language with big user base java, C#, C++, perl, rust even fortran has this problem. The only thing that helps is experience with the language. I very seldom see code that survives ten years, even no deps things fail because your compiler interpreter changes. It is just part of the job. Sure I am not a big fan of C# or PowerShell but a big part is just that I have no experience.
That’s not generally true for .Net, though the use of third party libraries could create an issue in some cases.
.Net was designed deliberately so that multiple versions could be installed side by side and an executable would pick the version most likely to work based on target version and compatibility. In most cases .Net is also forward compatible so e.g. a .Net 3 app continues to work on a PC where only .Net 4.8 is installed. In addition, libraries could be part of the application installation and in modern .Net, the framework can be part of the application installation.
In most cases, everything will just work, and when it doesn’t, one can just install the older .Net version needed and nothing will be broken.
Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914 (2022)
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is Python still that bad? I remember the big problems were during the Python 2 -> Python 3 transition, but in the last few years I've managed to get away with a single Python install and haven't really had any compatibility issues. I stick with Python.org packages for macOS, and the official Python packages on Ubuntu, and everything seems to work just fine.
There are better tools for managing the madness, certainly. uv makes python management almost pleasant (sandboxing the whole environment by default is a wise choice).
That sounds like a good way to greatly increase the disk and ram required for each tool or running copy of a tool or application. Almost as bad as turning everything into an Electron app.