alt.hn

5/12/2026 at 3:23:58 PM

Wrap Go binaries in Python wheels

 https://github.com/simonw/go-to-wheel

by ankitg12

5/14/2026 at 10:54:38 PM

Why wouldn't I just `go install` from the git repo? Why is it worth encouraging the use of python tooling for generic application distribution when things like homebrew or chocolatey already exist?

by Philip-J-Fry

5/15/2026 at 8:27:38 AM

You would need to have go installed. For my golang opensource project, also added releases on pypi and also npm.

by je42

5/14/2026 at 11:06:02 PM

From what I recall, Simon believes non-technical people or developers new to an ecosystem (or lacking a specific toolchain) should be given options to use existing language-specific package repositories and package management tools to reduce friction while engaging in agentic coding.

I can see the rationale but I can't help thinking it's utterly absurd.

by bbg2401

5/14/2026 at 11:11:22 PM

What kind of "non-technical" person is fine with using "pip install …", but not "go install …"?

by WhyNotHugo

5/15/2026 at 1:50:22 AM

The kind of person who only knows Python or has learned a bit by following a Python tutorial. There are a lot more resources for people who are just starting to learn programming in Python. I can also see a use-case where there is an image with pip installed, but not any of the Golang packages.

It’s kind of niche, but I can see a place for it.

by mbreese

5/15/2026 at 12:07:33 AM

Is uvx and python aware of GOOS / GOARCH when using this method? It looks like it, but also means you have to download all of the binaries instead of just the one you need?

I agree it is absurd, and then there has to be a python package one has to create, something go avoided by using the git repo URL directly

by verdverm

5/14/2026 at 11:23:28 PM

I’m curious if I could use this to write my webserver in Go, then call back to Python for the data sciencey stuff over stdin(?), but all in one nice tidy package? I mean right now I use fastapi and write it all in Python but I happen to enjoy writing Go. Does it matter either way? No I have like 4 users, but it seems not too crazy either?

by geophph

5/14/2026 at 10:37:53 PM

This is still surprising! There are similar tools for rust, and presumably it works for arbitrary binaries. Can be a convenient installation approach if you expect your user base to use python. E.g. for distributing tools written in Go, Rust, C, etc that aid Python development. To the user, it's a standard `pip install x`, but x is not a python script.

by the__alchemist

5/14/2026 at 11:11:02 PM

Why should I use python when I can just use Go? Like why

by mistic92

5/15/2026 at 12:33:22 AM

Because you can wrap Go binaries in Python wheels, but not yet Python wheels in Go binaries

by shikon7

5/14/2026 at 10:29:50 PM

Read too fast, I was really hoping for a way to get a python app in a binary like in Go.

by sunshine-o

5/14/2026 at 10:36:36 PM

Hah; turns out this is precisely the opposite!

by the__alchemist

5/14/2026 at 11:08:15 PM

Python subsystem for Go

by pkaye