tl;dr: does anyone know any better way to accomplish basically the same thing as aliases since mine don't work?
hey and thanks for reading,
I have a raspberry pi where I'm trying to run a bot that only works on python 3.6 and up. Python only officially supports up to 3.5 on Raspberry Pi, so I had to manually compile it.
Anyway, the bot I use calls "python3" in its coding, however Raspberry Pis come with 3.5, so calling "python3" actually calls Python 3.5, not 3.7. I tried deleting Python 3.5, but it then rather than calling Python 3.7, it just said that nothing named python3 exists.
I tried using aliases to call it, but they don't work at all for some reason. I know I'm using the right syntax, and I did the update command for the file, but they just don't work.
I know that's kind of a lot, but does anyone know any better way to accomplish basically the same thing as aliases since mine don't work? Or can anyone help me figure out what's wrong with my current coding for aliases?
It's not advisable to install an out-of-distribution Python version, and you can't expect system libraries to work with it.
Your best bet is to upgrade to Raspbian Buster, as it comes with Python 3.7 as standard. Buster is still in testing phase and not due for release until the summer, but I've been using it for a while and it seems to work ok. I have had success upgrading the Lite image but not Desktop.
To upgrade, edit /etc/apt/sources.list and replace stretch with buster, then  run apt update; apt dist-upgrade and wait for it to do the upgrade, then reboot and you'll have python3 pointing at Python 3.7.
How to get the python command to call python3.7?