[arch-general] Python 3 Rationale?

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:10:03PM -0500, C Anthony Risinger wrote:

> the point is that it really, really, really... doesn't matter what
> `python` is symlinked to.  developers need to have the competence to
> instruct the system appropriately, and construct the environment they
> need to function properly.  if you rely on a particular behavior from
> a moving target, then your app is already broken.

Problem is that some packages for the time being *have* to be Python 2,
most notably anything numpy or related to it. Adapting numpy to P3 is
not just a matter of changing some details. Up to now numpy has had its
own multidimensional array classes. The new buffer interface in P3 is
superior to these, so numpy should (and probably will) migrate to this.
But this is not a simple operation, it involves a lot more than the 
normal P2 or P3 transition supported by the existing tools.

At the same time other packages (from Arch) expect python to link to
python3. Things would be *much* easier if *all* would refer explicitly
to either 2 or 3, instead of assuming some default. In that sense the
Arch decision seems unfortunate.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

There are three of them, and Alleline.