Post #3939956
2026-07-05 16:07 UTC
Replies (3)
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@ancoghlan@mastodon.social 2026-07-05 16:36
@nedbat@hachyderm.io @pfmoore@mastodon.social Because "project" has semantic implications which are not correct in the general case, whereas "virtual environment" is a mere behavioural description in the same sense as "virtual machine" (to contrast them with the underlying "real" runtime environments that Python installations provide by default). Many virtual environments ("how they work") are associated with a specific project ("what they're for"), but far from all of them.
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@pfmoore@mastodon.social 2026-07-05 19:27
@nedbat@hachyderm.io Basically what @ancoghlan@mastodon.social said. Virtual isn't the best term in the world, but "project" has a bunch of nuances that simply don't apply to the majority of Python code I write.
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@pfmoore@mastodon.social 2026-07-05 19:48
@nedbat@hachyderm.io To give you some specifics - environments used to run scripts with dependency metadata, throwaway environments to experiment at the REPL with an interesting looking library, environments to use a library like symptoms as a calculator, etc... The majority of my environments are created in $TEMP.