There are many ways to get Python installed on your computer. If you were going to start fresh, what tools would you use? What if you need to manage multiple versions of Python and virtual environments? What about all the additional tools that make your coding workflow complete? This week on the show, Calvin Hendryx-Parker is here to talk about bootstrapping your Python environment.

Calvin is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up and a Python Web Conference co-organizer. As a consultant, Calvin has set up countless machines to run Python. He configures environments that can scale from in-office projects to distributed cloud-based applications.

We cover tools for installing Python, managing multiple language versions, and configuring virtual environments. Calvin talks about setting up command-line applications in isolated environments. We also discuss traveling with Python on an iPad.

Course Spotlight: Start Managing Multiple Python Versions With pyenv

In this step-by-step course, you’ll learn how to install multiple Python versions and switch between them, including project-specific virtual environments, with ease with pyenv.

Topics:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction
  • 00:02:42 – Giving talks at IndyPy
  • 00:03:12 – Calvin’s talk “Half a Dozen Ways to Fail at Python”
  • 00:07:41 – Advice on installing Python using Homebrew and pyenv
  • 00:11:48 – The consistency of using a Docker container
  • 00:18:49 – Creating virtual environments and installing packages
  • 00:21:51 – Sponsor: ScoutAPM
  • 00:22:38 – Creating requirements.txt files and moving from pipenv to piptools
  • 00:30:54 – Paying attention to security issues and your software supply chain
  • 00:34:19 – The goal of making a repeatable developer build experience
  • 00:39:30 – Video Course Spotlight
  • 00:40:47 – Using pipx to set up CLI code tools
  • 00:44:52 – Using bpytop to monitor performance
  • 00:46:41 – Tools for using Python on the iPad
  • 00:53:06 – Python Web Conference
  • 00:56:08 – Moving your dotfiles across multiple machines with chezmoi
  • 01:02:22 – Thanks and goodbye

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