[arch-dev-public] Add active Python versions to the repos

[Filipe Laíns]

On Sat, 2020-11-21 at 16:58 +0100, Andreas Radke via arch-dev-public
wrote:
> Am Sat, 21 Nov 2020 14:34:24 +0000
> schrieb Filipe Laíns via arch-dev-public
> <arch-dev-public at archlinux.org>:
> 
> 
> > Does anyone have any big issue with this? What are your thoughts?
> > 
> > [1] https://www.python.org/downloads/
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Filipe Laíns
> 
> -1
> 
> Arch is yours. Whoever needs more and older releases on the system -
> just do it yourself! In the past we said "use abs and AUR - Arch is
> the base to make it your own".

This argument can be used to deny adding any package to the repos. You
need this library, tool, etc.? Just add it yourself.

Why are we packaging software that is used by far less people but we
can't package these Python interpreters which are being actively missed
by people?

> I don't want to see users raising bugs that something doesn't work
> with an older version of python. And I don't want to see these
> requests
> pop up every now and then to add even more stuff in different
> versions.

We already have multiple versions of Java, Ruby, Javascript, etc. hell,
even Python. I don't think having people opening bugs because they are
deliberately using an older version of Python is a big problem. It
hasn't been for any of the other languages, I don't think it will be
here.
I think this is an hypothetical that doesn't really materialize into
reality.

> It's sad enough we still have python2 and gtk2 around. To have gcc9
> around and other duplicates is not what I want to see growing in
> Arch. 

What you call sad I call a bad UX. Why do we need to force users to
compile active releases of the Python interpreters themselves, which
can take a long time if they are building with optimization, or to
resort to pre-built repos with much lower security standards than us,
when there are people willing to maintain them?

I can't understand how it's sad to help out users by not forcing them
to resort the sort of things I mentioned above, as long as we are not
struggling to do so. I like helping people, that's why I am a packager,
that is the opposite of sad for me, so I really can't understand this.

> I don't want to see our distribution transformed into another Debian.

That is not what is happening.

Cheers,
Filipe Laíns
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