[Python-Dev] Python-3 transition in Arch Linux (original) (raw)

Thomas Wouters thomas at python.org
Thu Nov 4 18:27:55 CET 2010

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 05:44, Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org> wrote:

According to #python, we are all idiots....

To clarify (but I dont speak for the rest of #python, just myself), I think the move was premature, but I don't use Arch and I don't know what typical Arch users expect. The reason I think it's premature is that 'python2' just doesn't work everywhere, and I would have gone for a transitionary period where '/usr/bin/python' is something that screams loudly that it shouldn't be used before it executes 'python2'. That would've allowed for more time to fix things that use the wrong shebang line, or tools that use 'python' instead of letting distutils set it for them. I hope that's something other distributions will consider before changing the meaning of /usr/bin/python.

As for #python, well, we got this storm of people utterly confused about how their stuff doesn't work anymore, and putting the blame in the wrong place. I don't think a distribution should ever cause that (even though many do in lesser ways) -- but as I said, I don't use Arch so maybe I don't understand the purpose of it. The complaints seem to have died down now (though possibly because of the 'no arch' topic :)

-- Thomas Wouters <thomas at python.org>

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