[Python-Dev] Python 3 as a Default in Linux Distros (original) (raw)

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Wed Jul 24 12:36:25 CEST 2013

On 24 July 2013 10:12, Bohuslav Kabrda <bkabrda at redhat.com> wrote:

- What should user get after using "yum install python"? There are basically few ways of coping with this: 1) Just keep doing what we do, eventually far in the future drop "python" package and never provide it again (= go on only with python3/python4/... while having "yum install python" do nothing). 2) Do what is in 1), but when "python" is dropped, use virtual provide (*) "python" for python3 package, so that "yum install python" installs python3. 3), 4) Rename python to python2 and {don't add, add} virtual provide "python" in the same way that is in 1), 2) 5) Rename python to python2 and python3 to python at one point. This makes sense to me from the traditional "one version in distro + possibly compat package shipping the old" approach in Linux, but some say that Python 2 and Python 3 are just different languages [3] and this should never be done.

I'm not a Unix user, but IMO any approach that has the simple package name and command "python" disappear or become deprecated, makes me sad. I think that "yum install python" should install Python, and "python" should run Python. Frankly, the differences between Python 2 and Python 3 are not big enough that users writing simple scripts and applications for personal or local use can't cope with this. Not everyone writes major libraries, and it's the casual users you should be looking at.

There may be a debate over when this usage should give the user Python 3 rather than Python 2 (I'm very much an early adopter by instinct, so I'd say sooner rather than later, but others may differ) but that's secondary.

Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20130724/0a8dbb53/attachment.html>

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list