[raffraffraff]

Pipx still breaks. I tried to use something a few days ago that had been working until a month ago and it failed with some useless generic python error that I can't remember. I looked at the code in the /usr/bin/thing and it was just a wrapper. After following the rabbit around I just uninstall pipx, install it again, and then reinstall the thing that I was originally trying to use. No idea what broke it, perhaps a python update or something. The 'dead' version is probably still hanging around in my home directory taking up space somewhere.

Python absolutely sucks in this regard and I don't think there is a permanent solution. Except give python a compiler that can spit out binaries and libraries. I wish nim was 100% python code compatible.

Compiled binaries with shared libs work fine as long as they come from an OS package repository. Statically compiled binaries work almost everywhere. But a script that needs a bag of other specifically versioned scripts needs to live in it's own (sometimes impossible) world. Hell, I've even had a single pip install on a clean system fail because two dependencies of the module I was installing wanted different versions of some common dependency. Gah, burn it with fire.

I'm always amazed at the Windows ecosystem. I can download something that was built in the 90s and happily run it in wine.

[networked]

Yeah, I've had pipx break once with a generic error. It was after a Python version upgrade. I also ended up reinstalling pipx and the applications to fix it. I should qualify my recommendation. With pipx, your application will very likely install and work correctly, but it won't necessarily stay working when the Python installation changes. A self-contained binary is better in this way.

I don't see Python packaging and dependency management as a bulldoze-everything-and-start-over disaster anymore. Thanks to improvements like wheels, manylinux, `pyproject.toml`, https://peps.python.org/pep-0517/, and Poetry/PDM/Flit/Hatch/etc. they are increasingly adequate.

I have compiled a Python application to a native binary with https://github.com/Nuitka/Nuitka. Once I got it to compile, it fully worked. The process was a little fiddly, although I don't remember the exact problem. In the end I set up a Docker container for the build, and then it built. Maybe Mojo will be what you wish Nim was.

For standalone scripts, there are options. (My list: https://github.com/stars/dbohdan/lists/python-scripts-with-d....) Support for scripts should be coming to pipx. I have used the development version and liked it. This is an area where things are actually pretty good but not common knowledge.

> I'm always amazed at the Windows ecosystem. I can download something that was built in the 90s and happily run it in wine.

https://blog.hiler.eu/win32-the-only-stable-abi/ :-)