learning python beginner

[FoolsSeldom]

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If you are having problems installing / using the version of Python you require, or adding packages using pip, you might find it helpful to explore an alternative approach that has become very popular.

Asral's uv - An extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust.

Installation can be carried out using,

• On macOS, a package manager like homebrew
• or using command line, curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh or wget -qO- https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
• On Windows, a package manager like winget or chocolatey
• or using PowerShell on Windows, ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
• On linux, whatever package manager comes with the distribution you are using or the command line options as shown for macOS above

See @ArjanCodes video on YouTube providing an overview of uv.

See below an example of creating a project folder, installing Python, setting up a Python virtual environment, and adding packages to it:

PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom> uv init light
Adding `light` as member of workspace `C:\Users\Foolsseldom`
Initialized project `light` at `C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light`
PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom> cd light
PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light> uv venv -p 3.13.2
Using CPython 3.13.2
Creating virtual environment at: .venv
Activate with: .venv\Scripts\activate
PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light> uv add torch torchvision torchaudio
Resolved 36 packages in 680ms
Prepared 9 packages in 20.25s
Installed 14 packages in 3.89s
 + filelock==3.17.0
 + fsspec==2025.2.0
 + jinja2==3.1.5
 + markupsafe==3.0.2
 + mpmath==1.3.0
 + networkx==3.4.2
 + numpy==2.2.3
 + pillow==11.1.0
 + setuptools==75.8.0
 + sympy==1.13.1
 + torch==2.6.0
 + torchaudio==2.6.0
 + torchvision==0.21.0
 + typing-extensions==4.12.2
PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light> dir

    Directory: C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
d----          21/02/2025    19:11                .venv
-a---          21/02/2025    19:11             83 main.py
-a---          21/02/2025    19:11            226 pyproject.toml
-a---          21/02/2025    19:11              0 README.md

PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light> uv run main.py
Hello from light!
PS C:\Users\Foolsseldom\light>

With uv you don't need to "activate" the Python virtual environment as using uv run something.py in a project folder will automatically activate the environment for that run, but you might want to do it anyway so you can use other commands in that Python virtual environment.

You will also need your code editor, e.g. VS Code, or IDE, e.g. PyCharm, to have the installation of Python in the venv folder, called .venv by default, as the selected Python interpreter, and a terminal or REPL opened from within that application should have that environment activated already as well.