I’m building a C++ app for managing Python environments — would you use it? [Survey]

[u/LeatherNatural6511]

Rundesk — Quick User Survey

A note before you read:
The idea and feature concepts behind Rundesk are mine. I used AI to help organize and explain the idea below.

What is Rundesk?

Rundesk is a lightweight Python development utility that brings Python version management, virtual environments, packages, dependency checking, and program execution into one GUI.

It is not meant to replace VS Code, PyCharm, or your preferred code editor. You keep writing code wherever you like; Rundesk focuses on everything around running and managing your Python projects.

What would Rundesk do?

🐍 Python & Virtual Environment Management

Rundesk would let you manage multiple Python installations and virtual environments through a GUI.

You could easily see and select:

Python version → Virtual environment → Project

A project can be associated with its appropriate Python interpreter and environment without manually switching between environments in a terminal.

📦 GUI Package Management

Instead of manually using commands such as pip install, Rundesk would provide a GUI for managing packages inside the selected virtual environment.

You could:

• Search for packages
• Install packages
• Remove packages
• View installed packages and versions
• Upgrade packages
• See which environment a package belongs to

The goal is to make package management easier without accidentally installing something into the wrong Python environment.

⚠️ Automatic Dependency Detection

Rundesk would continuously check whether the project's environment matches its declared requirements, such as a requirements.txt.

For example:

Project requires:

numpy==2.1.0
pandas==2.2.3
requests==2.32.3

Current environment:

numpy 1.26.4
pandas not installed
requests 2.32.3

Rundesk could show:

The button would attempt to synchronize the environment with the project's requirements.

▶️ Program Execution

Rundesk would provide an easy way to run, stop, and restart Python programs using the project's selected environment.

It would also display live program output so you don't have to repeatedly open a terminal just to see what your program is doing.

📊 Lightweight Monitoring

While a program is running, Rundesk could display information such as:

Status: RUNNING
CPU:    12%
RAM:    183 MB

> program output...

🪟 Compact Mode

Rundesk would have a small Compact Mode designed to sit beside your normal code editor.

The idea is that you could keep an eye on:

• Program status
• Output
• CPU usage
• Memory usage
• Basic execution information

without having a huge second IDE covering your screen.

The main philosophy

Rundesk isn't trying to become another giant IDE.

Instead:

You write code in your preferred editor.
Rundesk manages the Python environment around it.

The overall workflow is:

Project → Python → Virtual Environment → Packages → Dependencies → Run → Monitor

The actual question

If Rundesk existed and worked reliably as described, would you use it?

A. Yes — I'd probably use it regularly
B. I'd try it, but I'm not sure I'd switch
C. Maybe — only for certain projects
D. No — my current workflow is already better
E. I don't use Python enough to need it

If you chose A–C:

Which feature would make you most likely to use Rundesk?

If you chose D:

What would Rundesk need to do differently for you to consider using it?

Optional:

What Python tools do you currently use?
For example: VS Code, PyCharm, terminal/pip, uv, Poetry, Conda, etc.

Please be brutally honest. I'm trying to determine whether Rundesk would actually be useful to developers, not just whether the idea sounds cool.

[u/icecubeinanicecube]

Why would any serious dev want to use a GUI over the terminal? The whole idea collapsesif you just think about this question.

Because your idea is just "frontend for UV" wrapped in an AI slop pitch

[u/nickthewildetype]

What is the point of using AI to make a writeup like this? Wouldn't it be easier and closer to your idea to just jot it down yourself & hit send?

I feel like its a lot to ask of somebody to read a text that a person did not even bother to write. Even more so to try and get somebody to reflect of the the ideas suggested, how it can integrate into their workflows, what design choices would be ideal (etc)

[u/OkBrilliant8092 → u/nickthewildetype]

If you can’t be bothered to write it, I can’t be bothered to read it :)

[u/granddave]

D

I use uv for most, if not all the things you've listed. Except for the process monitoring which I don't see any use for. I work fully in the terminal, so a GUI would just be minus personally, unless there was some CLI/TUI option. Rundesk would require to be better than uv - way better - for me to switch, since all my projects, at home or at work, are set up with uv.

Having said that, it sounds like a fun project to work on, so go ahead and experiment and see if you manage to create something useful!

[u/word-word-numero]

Nope.

[u/Diapolo10]

D, because

1. uv is already in widespread use, and this project doesn't provide any real advantages (or rather, uv either already does everything I want it to or has everything I want in its development plans)
2. I find it difficult to trust a project that's got its pitch seemingly taken directly from LLM output
3. Unless this supports a CLI, it's utterly useless in CI environments

What would Rundesk need to do differently for you to consider using it?

Frankly I doubt it could convince me to use it no matter what it did. uv is just that good. And it's MIT-licensed, so even if the dev team got wiped off the face of the planet, nothing would stop others from forking it and continuing development.

What Python tools do you currently use?

Strictly Python? uv, ruff, mypy (while waiting for ty to mature, at least until it's no longer in alpha), Maturin/PyO3, Nuitka

Others: VS Code (with a whole bunch of extensions), Git, task, mise, cspell, Prettier

Frankly if there's anything I'd even consider replacing, it'd maybe be VS Code, eventually. Although I suppose having cspell/Prettier equivalents written in Rust and available in either PyPI or mise would also be something I could see happening. Not if vibe coded or lacking in real-world testing, though.