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Python Environment Setup seems complicated and unsolvable

So, I've been a dev for about 3 years, primarily working in TypeScript and NodeJS. I'm trying to broaden my skillset by learning python (and eventually expanding my learning of Computer Vision, Machine learning, etc.) but I feel incredibly frustrated by trying to get Python to work consistently on my machine. Surely I'm doing something wrong, but I just can't really understand what it is.
I've run into these problems mostly when using ML packages (TensorFlow, Whisper, OpenCV (although I was eventually able to resolve this), so I don't know if it's related to M1 support of one of the common dependencies, etc.
My current understanding of python is that:
M1 support of python is version dependent at best.
venv is the only environment manager I should need to use
I should use pyenv to install python versions so as to not conflict with os-installed python (macos dependencies)
I'll use the latest project I'm working on as an example.
My Machine and Environment
Mac M1 Pro, MacOS Monterey 12.6
pyenv 2.3.9
Python 3.7.13
Fish Shell version 3.5.1
My general workflow to get a project started:
Create virtual environment using venv
python3 -m venv <some_environment_name>
Open created directory using VSCode, and activate the virtual environment
Here is where I encounter my first issue, which seems to be persistent.
➤ source /Users/paal/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish
functions: Function '_old_fish_prompt' does not exist
~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish (line 18):
functions -c _old_fish_prompt fish_prompt
^
in function 'deactivate' with arguments 'nondestructive'
called on line 30 of file ~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish
from sourcing file ~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish
(Type 'help functions' for related documentation)
functions: Function 'fish_prompt' does not exist
~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish (line 47):
functions -c fish_prompt _old_fish_prompt
^
from sourcing file ~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish
(Type 'help functions' for related documentation)
fish: Unknown command: _old_fish_prompt
~/src/whisper_transcription/bin/activate.fish (line 71):
_old_fish_prompt
^
in function 'fish_prompt'
in command substitution
(whisper_transcription)
So, what I do to resolve this is add the following if statement to the fish.config file.
if type -q $program
_old_fish_prompt
end
Looking at GitHub issues, this seems to be a persistent issue for fish shell and this seems to at least temporarily resolve it.
Or, I just switch to ZSH.
OK, so with that resolved I move on. The environment is activated, I'm using ZSH now, and I can successfully run a python script that prints "hello world" to the console.
Then comes the nightmare of installing any packages. It seems like any project I start has some weird edge case of compatibility issues. Between M1 processors, Python Versions, builds not working correctly, etc.
for example..
import whisper
... # rest of file
This with any other code or even by itself throws the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 1, in <module>
import whisper
File "/Users/paal/src/whisper_transcription/lib/python3.7/site-packages/whisper/__init__.py", line 12, in <module>
from .decoding import DecodingOptions, DecodingResult, decode, detect_language
File "/Users/paal/src/whisper_transcription/lib/python3.7/site-packages/whisper/decoding.py", line 514
if prefix := self.options.prefix:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
This appears to be some problem with the Python Version. From what I understand, the := operator isn't valid syntax until Python 3.8. However, dependencies of whisper (PyTorch) only seems to be supported up to version 3.7.9
So, you can see, it seems like I just end up in these bizarre circular problems where some dependency of some package I want to use isn't supported by either the platform or the current python version, and they seem basically unsolvable (at least with my current knowledge of python)
Why is this seemingly so complicated? I'm clearly doing something wrong here, and obviously I'm out of my comfort and knowledge zone, but these issues feel very daunting and opaque, and difficult to actually troubleshoot this in any consistent or clear way.
Is there a resource that makes this stuff more clear? Is Python development on M1 chips just this broken at the moment? How can I get past these seemingly basic issues to start actually learning?
I'm not necessarily looking for a solution to this specific problem here, but if theres general advice about environment management and how to make things work somewhat reliably, I'm fine troubleshooting. I just feel like every time I start trying to learn, I end up in these rabbit holes that take hours and hours to fix and sometimes don't even really resolve things.

pyFirmata gives error: module 'inspect' has no attribute 'getargspec'

I'm trying to use pyFirmata, but I can't get it to work. Even the most basic of the library does not work. I guess there is something wrong with the library code.
from pyfirmata import Arduino,util
import time
port = 'COM5'
board = Arduino(port)
I get this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:\Users\Public\pythonpublic\arduino.py", line 5, in <module>
board = Arduino(port)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\marce\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages\pyfirmata\__init__.py", line 19, in __init__
super(Arduino, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:\Users\marce\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages\pyfirmata\pyfirmata.py", line 101, in __init__
self.setup_layout(layout)
File "C:\Users\marce\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages\pyfirmata\pyfirmata.py", line 157, in setup_layout
self._set_default_handlers()
File "C:\Users\marce\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages\pyfirmata\pyfirmata.py", line 161, in _set_default_handlers
self.add_cmd_handler(ANALOG_MESSAGE, self._handle_analog_message)
File "C:\Users\marce\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages\pyfirmata\pyfirmata.py", line 185, in add_cmd_handler
len_args = len(inspect.getargspec(func)[0])
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: module 'inspect' has no attribute 'getargspec'. Did you mean: 'getargs'?

As already pointed out in another answer, the pyFirmata modules is currently documented to run on Python 2.7, 3.6 and 3.7. This doesn't mean it won't work on other versions, but probably that it hasn't been tested on other versions by the author and it isn't officially supported. So it may or may not work on newer Python versions.
Your error message is caused by a missing function inspect.getargspec(). This function is part of the Python Standard Library, but has been deprecated since Python 3.0 (which came out in 2008). Unfortunately the author wasn't aware of this or simply didn't bother to fix it, so now the code doesn't work anymore with the latest version of Python.
In the Python documentation, you can see that the function is still available in version 3.10, but not in version 3.11.
To solve this you have a number of options:
Downgrade to Python 3.10, which is currently still a good option (Python 3.10 is "alive" until 2026-10-04). I don't know if all other functionality does work. I guess it will, but you would have to find out yourself.
Downgrade to Python 3.7, which is claimed to be supported. Given that Python 3.7 is also still alive (until 2023-06-27), that's a reasonable option as well.
Create an issue for the pyFirmata module and hope the author will fix the problem. Note that an issue has already been created by someone in 2019 but apparently without effect. You could leave a comment there confirming that this has now broken for real.
Clone the library and fix it yourself (and create a Pull Request to get it in the official library).
Find another, similar, library that does work with Python 3.11.
Write the code yourself.
Downgrading to a Python version between 3.7 and 3.10 is certainly the simplest option, and leaving some feedback to the author will give you a chance it will be fixed in the future, in case your planning to use your script for a longer time.

According to the first line of pyFirmata docs:
It runs on Python 2.7, 3.6 and 3.7
You are using Python 3.11. The inspect (core library module) has changed since Python 3.7.

Python-telegram-bot syntax error for the line "_id_attrs: Tuple[Any, ...] = ()"

I have installed the python-telegram-bot package through pip and pip3 on ubuntu and tried to load it with:
from telegram.ext import Updater, CommandHandler
I then get:
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/telegram/base.py", line 42
_id_attrs: Tuple[Any, ...] = ()
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
I get a similar error for the python 2.7 version. The "base.py" file has a line with "_id_attrs:", I've been using python for a while and never have seen a variable name followed by a colon. What is meant to make this line readable to python.

You will have to update your python version to at least 3.6. The syntax (from the error) is introduced in python 3.6 (check PEP-526).
Also, It's clearly stated in the library's Documentation that you must use v3.6+.
This library provides a pure Python interface for the Telegram Bot
API. It's compatible with Python versions 3.6+. PTB might also work on
PyPy, though there have been a lot of issues before. Hence, PyPy is
not officially supported.

AttributeError: dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, run): symbol not found - meaning

I am attempting to use the PyMultinest package. The full error text I am encountering is AttributeError:dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, run): symbol not found in the __getitem__() function in ctypes/__init__.py. I'll include more text and code below, but I am mostly trying to understand what this error is telling me - my Google Fu is apparently lacking, and the StackExchange questions I have seen relating to this error seem to be hyper-focused on solving a specific instance of this error. So - What is this error trying to tell me is wrong?
More context. I attempt to execute the PyMultinest (PMN) package as directed in the PMN documentation. PMN is, effectively, a Python wrapper for a C program. Running PMN requires a fair bit of setup code (several ancillary functions need to be defined, as well as a host of variables), which I'm not including here by default because it's ... a lot, but I can if needed. The PMN execution line I use is
pmn.run(Loglike, Prior, ndims, n_live_points=1000, n_params=n_params, outputfiles_basename='./'+ProjectName+'/temp_', resume=False, verbose=True)
This returns the error traceback
File "[redacted]", line 139, in <module>
pmn.run(Loglike, Prior, ndims, n_live_points=1000, n_params=n_params, outputfiles_basename='./'+ProjectName+'/temp_', resume=False, verbose=True)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pymultinest/run.py", line 254, in run
lib.run(*args_converted)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 386, in __getattr__
func = self.__getitem__(name)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 386, in __getitem__
func = self._FuncPtr((name_or_ordinal, self))
AttributeError: dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, run): symbol not found
If it helps, I have determined that the name variable being passeed through self.__getitem__(), and thus into self._FuncPtr(), is run. Although, that might be obvious looking at the AttributeError message.
I am running Python 3.8 (as shown above) on a MacOS machine. Last summer, I was able to execute PMN on this machine using extremely similar code to that which I am using now. I am currently trying to optimize my code from last summer, which is why I'm surprised it isn't simply "working".
So far my attempts at fixing this have been mostly centered on reinstalling PMN. I have done a clean install (pip uninstall/pip install) of the PMN package, as well as following the PMN documentation to rebuild the C portion of the package. I have included the source directories of the C software in my Path variables - or at least, I tried to, I am assuming I was successful, but I'm not very familiar with Macs.
Ultimately, I just wish I understood what Python was telling me with this error better. It would help me direct my own attempts at solving the issue. I suspect it is saying "We don't know where to find this 'run' command you're asking for," in which case I need to figure out why my Path variable changes aren't working. Am I on the right path?

Some hints how to resolve this are given in these issues:
https://github.com/JohannesBuchner/PyMultiNest/issues/160
https://github.com/JohannesBuchner/PyMultiNest/issues/163
It is important to cleanly recompile (empty build folder) when the environment changes, so that cmake recognises changed libraries and compilers.

Check if you are running everything with python3 and not python (works as python 2.x is you have both version 2 and 3 installed)
Check is all the PyMultiNest python files are rewritten in python 3 style, e.g. $ print "something" becomes $ print("something")
My supervisor was accidentally running on python 2.7 and got the same error, so your error might as well be due to mismatch of python version usages.

Run command flutter pub cache clean and flutter clean and after that run flutter pub get now relaunch your emulator it worked for me.

Syntax Error in Python Request Library when Using on My Test server

I'm using Python Request Library in one of my projects. Everything works fine on my local system where I have Python 2.6 and Django 1.2.3.
I have created the same environment for my Test server(Python 2.6 and Django 1.2.3 and is using WSGI 3.2). Now I get some weird syntax errors. For example:
line 266
result.append((k.encode('utf-8') if isinstance(k, unicode) else k,
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax*
Here's another:
from .config import settings
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax*
I'm guessing it's something because of wsgi but not sure exactly. Can someone please help me to solve this issue.
Thanks

This errors mean that actually you are not using Python 2.6. Probably Python 2.4 is also installed on you environment and it is used to execute your code.

I'm guessing your webserver (such as apache) is using an older version of python, rather than the python 2.6 environment you setup.