Was Python 3 A Mistake? (original) (raw)

Almost 5,000 Pythonistas have responded to a survey exploring the popularity and use of Python 3.x compared to 2.x. And so far the results are looking good for 3.x.

The ongoing survey comes from Dan Stromberg who decided to investigate Python usage because he was tired of hearing "naysayers" decrying Python 3.x. He has now provided results based on responses from the first 4,790 respondents.

Almost all the respondents (4,660, 98%) had written code in Python 2.x whereas only 60% said they had written code in Python 3.x.

The majority currently write more code in Python 2.x than in 3.x:

and they overwhelmingly have dependencies that tie them to the Python 2.x branch:

The survey included questions about porting code between the versions of Python. Fewer than a third of respondents had done so:

Porting tools seem to be relatively unpopular - 768 respondents (16% of those who answered the question) had used 2to3 and only 91 (2%) had used 3to2.

The key question in the survey did however come out favourably for Python 3.x with over three quarters choosing the No option:

If you want your opinion to be counted the Python 2.x vs 3.x survey is still available.