Python on Windows with Steve Dower

Summary In order for Python to continue to attract new users, we need to have an easy way for people to get started with it, and Windows is still the most widely used operating system among computers. Steve Dower is the build maintainer for the Windows installers of Python and this week we spoke with him about his work in that role. He told us about the changes that he has made to the installer to make it easier for new users to get started and how modern updates to the packaging ecosystem for libraries has simplified dependency management. He also told us about how the Visual Studio team is building a set of tools to make development of Python code more enjoyable and how Microsoft’s adoption of open source is making Windows a more attractive platform for developers. Brief Introduction Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit on your account! Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti Today we’re interviewing Steve Dower about Python on Windows Interview with Steve Dower Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris You are currently the release manager for Python on Windows. How did you end up with that responsibility? – Tobias While Python has supported Windows for a long time, the overall experience has historically been rather poor. Can you give a bit of the background of why that was and tell us about some of the work that you and others have been doing to make it better? – Tobias Given that a large percentage of users are still on Windows, having a good story for getting started with Python on that platform is important for adoption of the language. What are some of the areas where the current situation needs to be improved? – Tobias What is the most difficult part of building a distribution of Python for a Windows environment? Has it gotten easier in recent years? – Tobias When we were speaking at PyCon you mentioned that the most frequently downloaded version of Python from the python.org site is the 32 bit version for Windows. Do you think that is an accurate and useful metric? What other statistics do you wish you could capture or improve? – Tobias How does Python Tools for Visual Studio compare with other Python IDEs like Pycharm? – Chris What are some unique features that Python Tools for Visual Studio offers that other tools don’t? – Chris Are there any compelling aspects of developing Python on Windows that could convince users on other platforms to make the switch? – Tobias Could you give our listeners a whirlwind tour of the underlying implementation of PTVS? How does Visual Studio provide such in depth introspection for your Python code? – Chris Keep In Touch Twitter Github Microsoft Azure steve.dower Picks Tobias Kdiff3 SpyderCo Triangle Sharpmaker Chris Audible Steve Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD SMBC Random Encounters Links Windows compilers Visual C++ Build Tools (for Python 3.5 and later) Visual C++ Compiler for Python 2.7 PEP 514 The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA