From the article:
> uv is an incredibly powerful simplification for us that we use across our entire tech stack. As developers, we can all work with identical Python installations, which is especially important given a number of semi-experimental dependencies that we use that have breaking changes with every version. On GitHub Actions, we’re planning to use uv to quickly build a Python environment and run our unit tests. In production, uv already manages Python for all of our servers.
> It’s just so nice to always know that Python and package installation will always be handled consistently and correctly across all of our machines. That’s why uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade.
I can only conclude, that the author of the article, and perhaps even the organization they work in, is unaware of other tools that did the job long before uv. If they really value reproducibility that much, how come they didn't look into the matter before? Things much have been really hastily stitched together, if no one ever looked at existing tooling before, and only now they make things reproducible.
I guess reproducibility is still very much a huge problem, especially in jobs, where it should be one of the most important things to take care of: Research. ("Astronomer & Science Communicator" it says on the website). My recommendation is: Get an actual software developer (at least mid-level) to support your research team. A capable and responsibly acting developer would have sorted this problem out right from the beginning.
I am glad they improved their project setups to the level they should be at, if they want to call it research.
> I can only conclude, that the author of the article, and perhaps even the organization they work in, is unaware of other tools that did the job long before uv. If they really value reproducibility that much, how come they didn't look into the matter before? Things much have been really hastily stitched together, if no one ever looked at existing tooling before, and only now they make things reproducible.
Yes, Poetry has had lock files for years, and pyenv has been able to manage installations, but uv is "an incredibly powerful simplification" that makes it easy to do everything really well with just one tool.
Doesn't really explain, how their organization apparently ran around without proper lock files before, when they are a researcher. If anything, then this article is shining light on the previously bad state of project setup in the organization.
Also, I kinda feel dirty criticizing an open source project but Poetry seems to be struggling with technical debt. I hit bugs which have been open for years or stuff which is WONTFIXed, and while they truly do not owe me anything, it’s a lot more rewarding to use uv where I hit fewer issues in general and the stuff I do hit is usually fixed quickly.
There’s a bigger conversation about open source maintenance there, but if I have to get my job done it’s increasingly tempting to take the simplifications and speed.