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

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Fri Nov 5 02:40:10 CET 2010

James Y Knight wrote:

But the previous consensus (at least, as I, and presumably many other people understood it) was that python2 would remain the owner of the name "/usr/bin/python" for the indefinite future, and python3 would be invoked with /usr/bin/python3.

Given that, it's not at all clear that Arch's actions are the right thing to do.

The time will come when even Python 2.7 is long obsolete. I think it is silly to insist that people invoke python3 to run their Python 3.7 scripts. Arch might be jumping the gun a little, or even a lot, but sooner or later it should be done.

Besides, this is another sign that the Python 3 haters are wrong. We now have a distro that has made Python 3 the standard system python. It might be a bleeding-edge distro not recommended for non-experts, but it's still pretty cool that somebody has done it.

IMO, moving away from that consensus should've been brought up on python-dev rather than just one distro just doing it all alone, causing incompatibilities and annoyance.

We're all adults here. If Arch wants to live on the bleeding edge, more power to them. That's why my server runs Centos :)

-- Steven

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