In other comments you talk about "lightweight" as cognitive load, I'm curious why Python is any different than other languages?
I haven't used virtualenv very much, but I've been doing similar things for longer than virtualenv has been around. You need a `python` binary on PATH and a PYTHONPATH pointing to where you want to get your libraries from. virtualenv packages this up into a directory in a more user friendly fashion.
Most docs I've seen on Python2/3 advise on choosing one or the other, ideally 3. Which implies mixing should either be done very carefully or with a plan to transition to 3.
I get that some accidents of history have caused headaches. The deep adoption by distros have caused problems when people just want to use Python/libs installed with the OS (as well as moving to Python 3), authoring packages hasn't been great historically, etc.
That you needed four paragraphs to get your point across kind of emphasises my point.
I don't mean to be rude, but the key to getting people's attention is to get your point across quickly. As soon as somebody starts going all you have to do is install a frobozz and murtle a plinth I really just lose interest.
EDIT - doubting myself I went back up the thread here and this topic kicks off with "meson installation has many dependencies, it is not very lightweight" ("lightweight" operationally defined here for this discussion) - to which somebody replies "it doesn't matter, Ninja includes Python" or words to that effect. "it's not the correct version of Python" is the general gist of what comes next to which our GGP here says "all you have to do" is set up a python virtual environment, which is around the point where I start to feel frustrated and the need to go do something interesting.
So to be clear, the discussion is not about python being lightweight, but meson, and trying to wave complexity away with yet another layer of complexity (even if it's something as well known as python virtualenvs) is not reducing complexity but hiding it, IMO.
I honestly wasn't trying to be combative. I tried to make my comment just long enough to give context (showing my understanding of the solution and the assumptions I'm making). I'm not trying to interject my opinion, but see where my assumptions might be wrong.
I agree long wandering threads are difficult to follow.
I have little interest in new C++ build systems, but will jump in and contribute when I see a familiar problem I want to learn more about like managing sizable Python codebases. Python 2/3 isn't relevant at all to meson and I don't see the docs mentioning any need for version or package management. I've only ever heard/seen virtualenv needed in project management, never in distributed software. Is your beef with Python or any software using an interpreted language? Outside of the 2to3 transition and being deeply integrated in many distros, it has the fundamental problems other interpreted languages have and are handled in the same way.
I haven't used virtualenv very much, but I've been doing similar things for longer than virtualenv has been around. You need a `python` binary on PATH and a PYTHONPATH pointing to where you want to get your libraries from. virtualenv packages this up into a directory in a more user friendly fashion.
Most docs I've seen on Python2/3 advise on choosing one or the other, ideally 3. Which implies mixing should either be done very carefully or with a plan to transition to 3.
I get that some accidents of history have caused headaches. The deep adoption by distros have caused problems when people just want to use Python/libs installed with the OS (as well as moving to Python 3), authoring packages hasn't been great historically, etc.