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Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

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Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#2
You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why".

Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries coughtwistedcough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible.

At what point will we exclusively be developing on 3.x? I'm quite tired of the apologists claiming that making/maintaining things in 2.x is totally fine. At the very least you could run a pass of `2to3` (which is generally quite mature today) before claiming that it's difficult/impossible/too time consuming.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#3
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

I think the library ecosystem has tipped over to focusing on Python 3.

That doesn't really matter to people with large Python 2 codebases and no economic reason to transition them to 3.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#4
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

It's insane to think that Python 2 is going to go away because of the existence of Python 3. That is simply not how computer languages work. Python 2 has more than enough critical mass to continue pretty much forever in some form. It is even a reasonable target for new development because it is pretty much guaranteed to be stable. I would not be surprised if there was another initiative to fix Python 2's Unicode handling that would create a fork from Python 3 in the future as Python 3 took an approach that did not catch on.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#6
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

I think the library ecosystem has tipped over to focusing on Python 3. That doesn't really matter to people with large Python 2 codebases and no economic reason to transition them to 3.

Don't know how updated http://py3readiness.org/ is but according to it 346 of the top 360 libs support py3.

Interesting missing libs for me is supervisor and ansible.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#7
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

I write things in Python 2.

No mac comes with Python 3 installed. So, if I want to distribute simple scripts, I can either send a file and say "run this", or I can give a long list of instructions to install Python 3. Similarly, many linux distributions still don't, or only very recently, started distributing Python 3.

I don't know of any place which would have Python 3 and not Python 2.

So, the question is, why should I switch to Python 3? Python 2 is everywhere, Python 3 is not, and as far as I'm concerned I don't care about the differences.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#8
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

It's insane to think that Python 2 is going to go away because of the existence of Python 3. That is simply not how computer languages work. Python 2 has more than enough critical mass to continue pretty much forever in some form. It is even a reasonable target for new development because it is pretty much guaranteed to be stable. I would not be surprised if there was another initiative to fix Python 2's Unicode hand…

So true. Just last week I thought I would start to use python 3 because I was starting on a new project and had a new computer. I installed anaconda python 3 only to have it crash when starting jupyter because the new python 3 version doesn't support backtick quoting for some reason, and jupyter was using backtick quoting.

Oh well, back to python 2 for me, which will be stable for at least 2 years. Hopefully by then, I will be able to switch to another language.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#9

A missing point here: If you have an accent in your username on windows, you are welcome to a kingdom of pain due to pip inability to process paths with non-ascii chars.

And with anaconda distribution, you can't have any special characters, nor spaces in the path of the installation directory. And, in some machines that have multiple users, the default installation directory is a hidden folder which causes all sorts of issues and requires a reinstall.

Just some of the issues I've encountered running python workshops. Linux and Mac users have far fewer issues.

Re: Using both Python 2 and 3 in Windows

#10
post #2

You know what? I appreciate the authors drill-down into the "how" of this issue but I'd like to focus on the "why". Why, has it taken so long to get off of python2.x- noted I understand that a few libraries cough twisted cough have been holding projects back that depend on them. But I haven't wrote a single block of code in half a decade that wasn't python 2.x and python 3.x compatible. At what point will we exclusiv…

I write things in Python 2. No mac comes with Python 3 installed. So, if I want to distribute simple scripts, I can either send a file and say "run this", or I can give a long list of instructions to install Python 3. Similarly, many linux distributions still don't, or only very recently, started distributing Python 3. I don't know of any place which would have Python 3 and not Python 2. So, the question is, why shou…

Only running things that are installed by default is an odd concept. Sure, it's an extra step and you have a "similar enough" language sitting in the base OS. But I never stick to vi because vim isn't installed and I don't stick to sh because bash isn't installed etc; Sometimes the improvements are worth-while.

But the need for "upgrade" is not arbitrary, I wouldn't claim that you need to upgrade to maintain support for instance, since dropping support for 2.x is seemingly arbitrary in isolation.

I would instead claim that the features in python3 (and some of the backwards fixes like UTF8 everywhere) are incredibly desirable.. Static method decorators, improvements to string formatting along with, of course, asyncio and other goodies like ordered dictionaries and key-word only arguments.. There's a lot going on there and most of it is good stuff but it's impossible to backport because 2.x is architecturally broken and required a breaking upgrade.

In answer of your question; I have python3 installed on all servers. SaltStack supports it so even on Windows we use Python3.

http://whypy3.com

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