Re: installing python 2 and python 3 in the same profile

[Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net>]

On 10/03/2018 09:34, Pjotr Prins wrote:

>> It still works with ad-hoc environments, but manifests containing both
>> Python versions cannot be instantiated any more.  This is too strict,
>> because we know that these two variants don’t cause conflicts.
> 
> That is not my experience. Any mix is a problem.

I agree. Even if "it works" superficially, it's hard to do serious work 
with Python when you have the two versions in the same profile.

In fact, I find that Guix is the best package manager for dealing with 
this precisely because it allows me to have multiple independent profiles.

> I suggest not to go there. Teach people about profiles and
> environments and all should be fine. You can support Python 3, Python

Yes, and perhaps make working with profiles a bit easier. For example, 
I'd appreciate a "guix profile" resembling "guix environment":

    guix profile ~/profiles/python2

would start a shell with the python2 profile, and

    guix profile ~/profiles/python2 command

would run "command" in the context of the profile. This is actually on 
my to-do list.

> I must add that in most of my Guix experience I relied on
> $HOME/.guix-profile. But these days I hardly use that anymore. Just
> for some basic desktop tooling. Using multiple profiles is the only
> way to mix versions and keep a level of sanity.

Same here.

Konrad.