pyenv VS nvm

Note that virtual environments assume you are using the same global version of Python. Often, this is not the case and additional tools like pyenv can be used alongside virtual environments when you need to switch between versions of Python itself on your local machine.

Python version manager pyenv

First of all, install the Python virtual environment from these links: 1 and 2. I developed my GPT-based API in Python version 3.8.18. Pick any Python versions >= 3.7.

When dealing with software development, reproducibility is key. This is why we encourage you to use Python virtual environments to set up an isolated environment for your project. Virtual environments allow the isolation of dependencies, which plays a crucial role to avoid breaking compatibility between different projects. We cannot cover all the details about virtual environments in this post, but we encourage you to learn more about venv, pyenv or conda for a better understanding on how to create and manage virtual environments.

For OSX there is homebrew or pyenv (pyenv is another solution on Linux). As pyenv compiles from source it will require setting up XCode (the Apple IDE) tools to support this which can be pretty bulky. Windows users have chocolatey but the issue there is it works off the binaries. That means it won't have the latest security release available since those are source only. Conda is also another solution which can be picked up by Visual Studio Code as available versions of Python making development easier. In the end it might be best to consider using WSL on Windows for installing a Linux version and using that instead.

I had previously installed pyenv, and then used that to install Python 3.10.6. Amazon's Linux 2 has an older version of Python installed by default, and using pyenv seemed like the best solution to installing a newer version of Python. I am also familiar with pyenv, having used it before, and it plays nicely with Pipenv. The Python community has developed a few solutions for package/dependency management in the last several years. There are also a few options when it comes to virtual environment creation and management. Poetry is a popular choice, and while I don't have strong opinions on which solution is best, I tend to use Pipenv. So, considering all the available solutions for handling multiple Python versions, recommending people to use python3.10-venv was a strange decision.

We then use pyenv which is a command line tool used to manage multiple versions of Python. This is useful if you are working on multiple projects that use different versions of Python. Check out the GitHub readme of the 'pyenv' project for more information on how to install it on your operating system. For windows check out pyenv-win or you can use venv Python's Built-in Virtual Environment.

There are many more features provided by the pyenv-tool that can be explored, read more at GitHub.

Node.js + Nvm - runtime for javascript without a browser

Install Node.js if it hasn't been installed. There are several ways to install Node.js. You may download the installer from the official website, or install it with tools like NVM. After installation, run this command to verify its installation.

Our server also needs Node.js to run our app. We could install the binary directly, but I prefer to use a tool called NVM, which allows us to easily manage Node versions. We can install it with this command:

By setting up your environment in isolation, you can prevent yourself from a lot of issues when experimenting with code. It makes your code behave more predictable due to the defined state of the runtime environment you are working with. This article should provide you with enough information to get started, but obviously, there is a lot more power embedded in NVM, Virtual Environment and RBEnv. So make sure to check their documentation.

I highly recommend setting up nodejs with a version manager, nvm was and still is a popular option, however, I now recommend and have been using fnm, a simpler and faster alternative to manage my nodejs versions.

The purpose of a version manager is to help you navigate or install any tools for development easily. Version Manager can be one tool for each dependency (e.g. NVM, g) or One tool for all dependencies (e.g. asdf, mise).

I usually develop on Windows so I installed NVM for Windows from here, but if you’re on other OS I’m sure you can find a version that supports it, probably this is the answer.

in order to install Node on your Linux environment. Next up is NVM. I suggest going to https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm and getting the latest install script from there. The current download is:

You can find the script to install nvm on their GitHub repository.