[uranusjr]

Totally agree; node_modules starts to break horribly when you use the wrong node/npm command to access it. This is unfortunately causing a lot of misconceptions because people usually judge tools by short-term experiementations. node_modules works very well in that scenario and gets the most love--until it doesn’t, you tear hair for those nasty bugs, and sadly can’t even convince people with your experience (“it works perfectly for me, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”)

I guess the node_modules approach is fine for Node, since the native binding story is quite bleak and no very people are deep into it anyway. But for Python this would be a complete no-go given how pervasive extension modules are. I don’t know what went through Ian Bicking’s mind when he first designed virtualenv, but so many aspects of it just reflects that tight cross-language integration Python is so good at (the bin/include/lib structure, copying/symlinking binaries into place, setting up env vars to trick foreign build systems into working, etc.). I wouldn’t want it any other way even if I could go back in time and involve in its original design. Well, maybe a few minor improvements, like offer a more beginner-frieldly interface than activate scripts, or more heavily promote running the binaries directly, but the design is just… correct.