This will hopefully minimize the usual faff that you might otherwise have when installing Python.
It's a practical implementation of the article Why you should use pyenv + Pipenv for your Python projects, by Daniel van Flymen (https://github.com/dvf)
https://hackernoon.com/reaching-python-development-nirvana-bb5692adf30c
MacOS installation will look very similar.
Just replace sudo apt with brew.
First and foremost, you want to leave the system Python in peace.
And you also want the ability to switch between different Python versions on the fly as you switch between projects.
pyenv gives you exactly that.
Do some nerd magic:
git clone https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv.git ~/.pyenv
echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/shims:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc
Your shell should contain the following now:
export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init --path)"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
Reload your shell:
source ~/.zshrc
See if pyenv works (should print a list of Python versions available online):
pyenv install --list
Install build dependencies (not needed on MacOS, if you've got Homebrew and xcode dev tools installed already):
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev
Install a fresh distribution of Python:
pyenv install 3.8.3
pyenv global 3.8.3
Reload your shell again:
source ~/.zshrc
Python 3.8.3 is now the default for your shell.
You can use python global to set it to something else. Or python local to assign a Python version to a project you're currently in.
For more info, check out this:
https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv#installation
https://github.com/mahmoud/boltons
Pipenv allows you to create virtual environments, avoid the usual pip problems, and it keeps you in a flow state (well, usually).
sudo apt install pipenv
This will allow you to bootstrap small projects with reasonable defaults, and get cracking with the development.
sudo apt install cookiecutter
A fun template to use is:
cookiecutter gh:sourcery-ai/python-best-practices-cookiecutter
It's got fun features like autoformatting (black), type-checking (mypy), and pre-commit and pre-push hooks. All in all, it saves you a lot of boring headache.
Run commands from the template's README:
pipenv install --dev
pipenv run pre-commit install -t pre-commit
pipenv run pre-commit install -t pre-push