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

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Wed Jul 24 19:04:43 CEST 2013

On 7/24/2013 5:12 AM, Bohuslav Kabrda wrote:

Hi all, in recent days, there has been a discussion on fedora-devel (see thread [1]) about moving to Python 3 as a default.

Default-shift is a known natural language phenomenon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym It is inevitably messy in the middle. Even worse for us, "Python' is both a natural and artificial language term and the default meaning will not necessarily be synchronized across the two domains.

Not being a current *nix user, I have no opinion on the specific alternatives. However, I am concerned about newcomers being mis-served by being mislead into thinking that 'Python' is python 2 rather python 3. We see this in some newbie posts on Python list. (This is especially a concern when default Python is still, say, 2.5.) I have no idea, though, how to avoid breaking scripts while directing newcomers in the proper direction.

-- Terry Jan Reedy

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