python-launcher

If I understood correctly: you may also be interested in https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher (by one of the core Python devs). Although that specifically targets Linux. On Windows, the provided launcher is already aware of venvs (https://peps.python.org/pep-0486/) - although it only uses the currently activated venv, to my understanding. Personally I'm not sure I like the idea of searching based on a folder name, as opposed to having some explicit registry of venvs. But this does seem to be more functionality than the existing options offer. Out of curiousity, how do you typically make and organize your venvs?

Huh. Come to think of it, when I was on Windows (through 2021) I got used to using `python` rather than `py` while using venvs, even though it was apparently no longer necessary after I upgraded from Python 3.4. This announcement totally missed me. But also it was easier to internalize "always use venvs, and always run `python`, and that way you won't have to change the instructions for Linux/Mac". And that worked out beautifully. But the launcher does have value. Mainly because of how Windows handles the PATH and how it wants C:\Program Files to be organized; but there are enough fringe benefits that a core dev wants to bring it to Linux/Mac too (https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher).

> There was a proposal for a directory-based node_modules analogue which was unfortunately rejected. There were many problems with the proposal. The corresponding discussion (https://discuss.python.org/t/_/963) is worth looking through, despite the length. Installers like Pip could help by offering to install `--in-new-environment` for the first install, and Brett Cannon (a core developer) has done some work on a universal (i.e. not just Windows) "launcher" (https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher) which can automatically detect and use the project's venv if you create it in the right place (i.e., what you'd have to do with __pypackages__ anyway).

You could look into cibuildwheel, to have more control over what Python versions are used to build a wheel, but as the name implies not a great solution for running it locally. Otherwise you'll have to be rather specific about what Python interpreter to use. For example using the python launcher for Linux (https://github.com/brettcannon/python-launcher). Looking through the docs of pdm, Hatch or Poetry, I can't really find a definitive answer if they will use the Python version you specify. They all at least need to be able to locate the correct Python version in order to do so. It would be great if managing Python versions was something that came along with Python, so that these tools could rely on it more.