Question

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 5:51 AM, Jon Ribbens
<jon+usenet at unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:
> I must say that Python on Windows was a very poor experience indeed,
> "virtualenv" does not work and "venv" refuses to create the 'activate'
> shell script so does not work either (and pygame doesn't work, but
> that's presumably not Python's fault).

To be quite frank, Python on Windows has had a *lot* of problems, and
most of them have been the fault of Windows. Starting with Python 3.5,
there've been some big packaging changes that ought to make Windows
Python a bit easier to use; however, there've been some teething
troubles, and there are still some ways in which setting up a
properly-working Python is a pain.

So you have a few choices:

1) Stick with the vanilla Python on the vanilla Windows. It's not
horrendous, but there will be rough edges. Report those rough edges,
and hopefully they can be fixed in time for 3.6 (or even 3.5.2).

2) Use a different Python distribution, eg Anaconda or ActiveState.
Some of them cost money; when you pay money for open source software,
what you're getting is a level of support, which will mean you can
complain to them when something doesn't work, and insist that they fix
it. This may or may not give you better results than option 1.

3) Use standard Python, and ditch Windows. This is what I do. :)

4) Keep using Windows, but do your Python work in a virtual machine.
Either full-on virtualization software like VirtualBox or VMWare, or
something that gives you a web browser interface to a VM hosted in the
cloud (eg Cloud 9 or Nitrous).

Personally, I don't see any reason to run "real Windows" on any of my
systems. Windows programs get run under Wine or VirtualBox, never
directly on the hardware. But if your needs are different, there are
plenty of ways to improve your Windows+Python setup; just be patient,
and accept that you might have a bit of extra work to do.

ChrisA