[Python-Dev] [RELEASED] Python 2.7 alpha 2 (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Wed Jan 13 11:30:50 CET 2010

Michael Foord wrote:

I agree with Martin that the perception is that to use Python 2.6 to help you port to Python 3 you have to be willing to drop support for earlier versions of Python.

Note that increased 3.x compatibility in the most recent 2.x release will always help in two scenarios:

  1. New projects that want to use 2.x only libraries but want to be ready for the Py3k transition in their own code (e.g. new 2.7 features like set literals, dict and set comprehensions and the view* dict methods can be translated far more cleanly by 2to3 than the closest comparable 2.6 code).

  2. Similarly new projects that use a 3.x trunk can be more readily translated to a 2.7 version with 3to2, whereas some constructs may be difficult to recreate in earlier Python versions. I would expect this to be significantly less common then the first scenario though.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

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