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

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Wed Jul 24 18:40:15 CEST 2013

On Jul 24, 2013, at 08:26 AM, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:

I think bkabrda is looking for some clarification on PEP-394. My reading and participation in the previous discussions lead me to believe that while PEP-394 wants to be diplomatic, the message it wants to get across is:

1) warn distributions that what Arch was doing was premature. 2) provide a means to get them to switch at roughly the same time (when the recommendation in the PEP is flipped to suggest linking /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python3)

+1

This is especially my reading from the Recommendations section of the PEP. Unfortunately, we're getting stuck in the Abstract section which has this bullet point:

* python should refer to the same target as python2 but may refer to python3 on some bleeding edge distributions

Yes, that wording is confusing and should be fixed.

Knowing the history, I read this in two parts: * Recommendation to distributions: "python should refer to the same target as python2". * Statement of fact: "but may refer to python3 on some bleeding edge ahemArchahem distributions"

However, other people are reading this as one recommendation for distributions: If you are a conservative, slow moving distro (like RHEL or Debian Stable) then you should point to python2. If you are a fast moving distro like Arch or Fedora or Ubuntu then you should point to python3. So -- is there some opinion on which of these is correct?

You know how I'm going to answer. :)

I like the way you've split that out into recommendations and statements-of-fact.

The key, though, is adding python2 and getting your code to use that binary  specifically so that shifting the default name is more of a convenience than something which might break existing code not ready for the switch. yeah, this is something that I think should be in the distribution's one year plan regardless of whether the binary is switched now or not.

We need to do that in Debian.

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