UX: hard to spot python provider in output

[hwine]

[Filing per @zanieb request in #9819 comment]

I'm a definite corner case configuration, so there may not be much that can be done. I have a MS Surface X (arm64 processor) running windows 11, and spend most of my python time in a Git-bash shell. The sequence of events that led to me uncovering the issue in #9819 is roughly:

1. upgrade uv to latest
2. see if there is yet an arm64 version of python available via uv python list
3. misread the output, and took a wrong guess at how to request installation
4. uncovered the error text provides bad command for additional information #9819 issue

While an arm64 box can transparently run x86_64 binaries, there is a performance hit which is most noticeable during python startup. So I've been trying to figure out how to use uv with a native arm64 python. (That's been a challenge I haven't solved cleanly yet, but not high on my list.)

Today, step 2 above (the only command I knew at the time) produced the following output:

❯ uv python list
cpython-3.13.1+freethreaded-windows-x86_64-none    <download available>
cpython-3.13.1-windows-x86_64-none                 <download available>
cpython-3.13.0-windows-x86_64-none                 AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.13.0-windows-x86_64-none\python.exe
cpython-3.13.0-windows-aarch64-none                AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313-arm64\python.exe
cpython-3.12.8-windows-x86_64-none                 <download available>
cpython-3.12.2-windows-x86_64-none                 AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.12.2-windows-x86_64-none\python.exe
cpython-3.12.2-windows-aarch64-none                .pyenv\pyenv-win\versions\3.12.2-arm\python.exe
cpython-3.11.11-windows-x86_64-none                <download available>
cpython-3.11.10-windows-x86_64-none                AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.11.10-windows-x86_64-none\python.exe
cpython-3.10.16-windows-x86_64-none                <download available>
cpython-3.10.15-windows-x86_64-none                AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.10.15-windows-x86_64-none\python.exe
cpython-3.9.21-windows-x86_64-none                 <download available>
cpython-3.8.20-windows-x86_64-none                 <download available>
cpython-3.7.9-windows-x86_64-none                  <download available>
pypy-3.10.14-windows-x86_64-none                   <download available>
pypy-3.9.19-windows-x86_64-none                    <download available>
pypy-3.8.16-windows-x86_64-none                    <download available>
pypy-3.7.13-windows-x86_64-none                    <download available>

Focusing on the left column, I saw the "windows-aarch64-none" and got excited. I glanced to the right column and (wrongly) ended up on a "<download available>" line, and jumped to the incorrect conclusion that uv could now install arm64 python versions on windows. After @zanieb pointed me to the correct command to use (uv python list --only-downloads) it was clear that windows arm64 builds are not yet available from uv.

What would help reduce the confusion, I think, would be some distinction in the listing between uv installed pythons, and all other. In my case, I have both a pyenv python and python.org python in the mix. Maybe using a different color for the non-uv ones in the right column (which are all blue for installed versions)? Or a prefix character on the left column (similar to ls -l output)?

[zanieb]

Ah I thought you were saying uv python list --only-downloads was showing system interpreters. This is less surprising, but perhaps we can do better.

[zanieb]

What do you think of #9841

[hwine]

Oops - clicked the wrong link and answered over here