How to explain “What is a Python environment?” to some PhD candidates that don’t have experience in programming?
I will teach Python this semester and I am trying to come up the right explanation.

if these phd candidates are in the field of software then just laugh during the entire class

Scientists (at least, I assume these are beta PhDs lol) love to hear that everything can be controlled and reproduced, so focus on that: tell them that an environment is a controlled, isolated space in which a project can have its own dependencies down to which versions are used.
This leads to a future-proof, reproducible project setup since you are the one in charge of which versions of the dependencies are used instead of automatically picking the system-standard version on a random device (which has a high chance of breaking your project in some cases, especially with co-dependencies).

At least for me personally and from what I've learned in uni, these are the most important points..

This is a big job to do man because understanding that shit will take alot of tym

Tell them it's a virtual environment that exists in cache only like their dreams.

@ojeee it’s very simple really.

Explain the concept of a hash map.
make sure they understand it.
Then say: "Python is a hashmap, That thinks it is a Programimg language".
Then start teaching them python.

Don't forget virtualenv, package managment, and monky patching!

The python interpreter is like a translator. You ask it to "please show the message 'hello world'" and it translates that request from Python to the underlying system's "language", whether it be MacOS, Linux or Windows.

Because of this layer of what's called "abstraction", Python is able to vastly simplify the otherwise complex and very extensive "languages" each operating system uniquely provides, allowing script writers to focus almost entirely on the logic and much less on fighting with the computer just to get things running.

@junon where is the venv?

Jungle with snek

@mundo03 Who said anything about venv?

@junon that what I assumed the "python environment" is on the rant.

Otherwise you would be using thr system python, and i stalling packages globally, that is nit an "environment" AFAIK

@mundo03 Environment here is ambiguous. The "environment" could mean just the scripting environment. Virtual environments aren't standard Python.

@junon Are you sure

@Eklavya No, just looked it up, they are. PEP 405. Which is weird, because they are completely separate concerns from python itself.

Python and Rust communities love to dictate how their software is used >.>

@100110111 but u didn't explain it as i can see

@ojeee a waste of time. But there’s nothing complicated in the concept of a Python environment. It should really be quite simple to convey the information to PhD students. I’m assuming they have some sort of brains at least.

@100110111 okay then please can you convey it to me i want to know

@ojeee I suck at explaining anything, so you’re better off querying your preferred search engine

@100110111 ohhh but from what i can see u can make it easier

@ojeee and why should I care?

@100110111 sakeof u are han not a robot