to completely uninstall python and its optional downloaded packages.
on the windows os
It sounds like you are requesting a feature in a specific IDE, rather than something that could be changed in Python itself.
I assume the mean the “offcial” (un)installer provided on windows, which are AFAIK maintained by some of the core devs.
It would be useful if you mentioned the operating system you are using, and the specific directories you’d like deleted on uninstall.
This is in relation to the Windows installer shipped from python.org. When you uninstall, if you’ve installed any packages via pip install, the site-packages directory gets left behind because it’s not empty.
An option to remove the site-packages would be convenient, but it’s dangerous because it means the installer would remove files it didn’t put there. I’m personally -0 on this, mainly because I suspect it’s difficult to implement and the benefit is minimal (IMO).
I agree, quite dangerous. And it still wouldm’t (for example) remove virtual environments you’ve created, or various other things. IMO the installer should remove what the installer installed, and that’s all.
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Yet it seems that the behavior in Windows is different from that on Mac. If I delete a version of Python from python.org, then the site-packages goes with it.
Hombrew and Linux have different stories.
In the end, I think that the OP’s request is reasonable for Windows, as the lagging site-pakcages directory is of no use if the version of Python that created it is uninstalled, and is dangerous if the same version of Python is re-installed.