[arch-general] [arch-dev-public] Python-3.x transition with python-2.7 update

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Mon, Jul 05, 2010 at 08:48:34PM +0200, Damjan Georgievski wrote:

> > Python-2.7 has been releases and will be the last 2.x official release of
> > python.  So it is time to switch to python-3.x as our /usr/bin/python and
> > python-2.7 as our /usr/bin/python2.  See
> > http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DeveloperWiki:Python_Todo_List for all
> > the details about how to achieve this.
> 
> What's the rationale for making Python 3.1 the "main" /usr/bin/python?
> 
> A great deal of python modules still don't support 3.x, there's no
> WSGI standard for 3.x either so you can't make web apps (and hope to
> deploy them). Even less C modules are 3.x compatible, and then even
> less applications.
> 
> And 2.7 is here to stay for a long time.
> 
> I think it would be wiser to stay with 2.7 as the main python for now.
> And maybe switch after Python 3.3 comes out.
> By that time the 3.x series should have enough improvements to
> motivate people to port to 3.x

Agreed 100%. Making python 3.x the default is going to
create *lots* of misery. I guess it will be at least a
year or probably more before it can even be considered.
A lot of extensions just (e.g. numpy, scipy, ...) are
not 3.x ready, and extensions is what people use in
practice.

It is possible to have both 2.x and 3.x installed and
switch between them - I've been doing this for at least
a year now. But it's not something for the average user.

Ciao,

-- 
Je veux que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux, mais
nonchalant d’elle, et encore plus de mon jardin imparfait.
(Michel de Montaigne)