creating command prefix for python 3.4

Question

Hello I am pretty new with python and linux terminal commands so please excuse me beforehand if I am missing something obvious over here. I created a python program which uses some python 3.4 features such as enums and asyncio. I want this program to run in my raspberry pi so I already installed python 3.4.3 by looking at this answer: Installing Python 3.4 on Raspberry Pi and following the steps in this page: Short Tutorial : Raspbian + Python3.4 + RPi.GPIO. However I have the following questions:

1. Is making a virtualenv mandatory for running python 3.4.3 programs?
2. The raspberry pi has built in commands such as 'python' and 'python3' to run programs with the pre-loaded python 2 and python 3.2. How can I create a custom command i.e. 'python34' to run programs using the newly installed python 3.4.3?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The python and python3 commands are symbolic links to the python2.7 and python3.4 commands. To make a symbolic link under the name python34 to python3.4, execute ln -s /usr/bin/python3.4 /usr/bin/python34. You wil then be able to execute python34, which will launch the python shell.

Answer 2

Follow the tutorial to have python 3.4 up and running.

http://depado.markdownblog.com/2015-03-12-short-tutorial-raspbian-python3-4-rpi-gpio

I always suggest you to have the programs to be run on virtualenv. There are lot of reasons for that. I would recommend you to have a look at the http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/.