[_bxg1]

It may be unpopular to say here, but I see Node as the best option.

- Runtime comes with a package manager

- Dependencies (not just imports, but tooling) are fully manifested in a project-local file

- Installs dependencies in a project-local directory

- Can specify exact package versions if you want maximum stability

- Left-pad can't happen again due to policy changes: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/unpublish#description

- Doesn't require any build steps or extra hoops if you're fine with skipping static types

In general it just does a really great job isolating from the environment. No messing with environment variables, most things even run fine on Windows out of the box. All you need is node itself installed and you're off to the races, whether you're starting a new project or running one you checked out from github.