<div dir="ltr">
<div>(I originally posted this to python-ideas, where I was told none of this PEP's authors subscribe so probably no one will see it there, so I'm posting it here to raise the issue where it can get seen and hopefully discussed)<br></div><div><br></div><div>While the PEP does show the version number as part of the path to
the actual packages, implying support for multiple versions, this
doesn't seem to be spelled out in the actual text. Presumably
__pypackages__/3.8/ might sit beside __pypackages__/3.9/, etc. to keep
future versions capable of installing packages for each version, the way
virtualenv today is bound to one version of Python.</div><div><br></div><div>I'd
like to raise a potential edge case that might be a problem, and likely
an increasingly common one: users with multiple installations of the
*same* version of Python. This is actually a common setup for Windows
users who use WSL, Microsoft's Linux-on-Windows solution, as you could
have both the Windows and Linux builds of a given Python version
installed on the same machine. The currently implied support for
multiple versions would not be able to separate these and could create
problems if users pip install a Windows binary package through
Powershell and then try to run a script in Bash from the same directory,
causing the Linux version of Python to try to use Windows python
packages.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm not actually sure what the
solution here is. Mostly I wanted to raise the concern, because I'm very
keen on WSL being a great entry path for new developers and I want to
make that a better experience, not a more confusing one. Maybe that
version number could include some other unique identify, maybe based on
Python's own executable. A hash maybe? I don't know if anything like
that already exists to uniquely identify a Python build or installation.</div>
<div><br></div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:overpass,sans-serif;font-weight:bold;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:14px;text-transform:uppercase">CALVIN SPEALMAN<br></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:overpass,sans-serif;font-size:10px;margin:0px 0px 4px;text-transform:uppercase"><span>SENIOR QUALITY ENGINEER</span></p><span style="font-family:overpass,sans-serif;font-size:10px;margin:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153)"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:overpass,sans-serif;font-size:medium"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:overpass,sans-serif;font-size:medium"></span><p style="font-family:overpass,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 6px;font-size:10px;color:rgb(153,153,153)"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px"><a href="mailto:cspealma@redhat.com" target="_blank">cspealma@redhat.com</a> </span> <span>M: <a href="tel:+1.336.210.5107" target="_blank">+1.336.210.5107</a></span><span><span></span></span></p><a href="https://red.ht/sig" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.redhat.com/files/brand/email/sig-redhat.png" width="90" height="auto"></a><div><a href="https://redhat.com/trusted" style="color:rgb(204,0,0);font-weight:bold" target="_blank">TRIED. TESTED. TRUSTED.</a></div></div></div></div>