I would like to install older versions of python for use with virtual environments, ideally from source as these versions are readily available on the official python website python 3.6 here however I can't seem to find any decent instructions.
The link above has version 3.6 full link to the tar.gz here. It downloads, I move into to program files and unzip it with 7zip:
C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe e Python-3.6.9.tgz
Then unpack the tar file:
tar -xvzf Python-3.6.9
There is no python.exe file in the unpacked directory to add to my path?
Am I missing a build step perhaps?
I found some more instructions here - where there really should be good instructions!, git is installed and setup, as is vs-code. I ran :
PCBuild\build.bat
The file 'PCBuild\pcbuild.sln' appears to have been successfully produced. Now what? I run the test described here
rt.bat -q
And I get: The system cannot find the path specified
For some reason when I run build.bat, a lot of what is printed to the seems to be mentioning python 3.8 which is now the default install on my system, its as if this method is not even pointing to the right version of python.
Please note I am looking specifically for native python approaches to this - NOT conda approaches as it is incompatible with a number of things I am doing.
I've tried; another SO queation, another SO question, here, and here, also here.
Many install guides seem to show only how to install the latest version of python using the python installer, which doesn't seem to be able to be used for legacy versions of python.
Also pythons official site has a link at the bottom labelled ' tools for unpacking archive files' which one would presume would help you to unpack, possibly even install archive files, however the link just takes you back to the top of the page?
Any help would be much appreciated?
