[Python-Dev] Python 2.x and 3.x use survey, 2014 edition (original) (raw)

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Tue Dec 16 06:00:57 CET 2014

Mark Roberts <wizzat at gmail.com> writes:

So, I'm the guy that used the "hate" word in relation to writing 2/3 compliant code. And really, as a library maintainer/writer I do hate writing 2/3 compatible code.

You're unlikely to get disagreement on that. I certainly concur.

The catch is, at the moment it's better that any of the alternatives for writing medium-to-long-term maintainable Python code.

The whole situation is made worse because I KNOW that Python 3 is a better language than Python 2, but that it doesn't MATTER because Python 2 is what people are - and will be - using for the foreseeable future.

Only if “people” means “any amount of people at all who are or might be using Python”.

While developers might like something that allows them to serve such a broad user base indefinitely, it's simply not realistic – and no feasible support strategy for Python could allow that.

So, as developers writing Python code, we must set our expectations for support base according to reality rather than wishing it were otherwise.

It's impractical to drop library support for Python 2 when all of your users use Python 2

Right. The practical thing to do is to decide explicitly, per project, what portion of those users you can afford to leave behind in Python-2-only land, and how much cost you're willing to bear to keep than number low.

I suppose what I'm saying is that there's lots of claims that the conversion to Python 3 is inevitable, but I'm not convinced about that.

I've never seen such a claim from the PSF. Can you cite any, and are they representative of the PSF's position on the issue?

Rather, the claim is that if one's code base doesn't migrate to Python 3, it will be decreasingly supported by the PSF and the Python community at large.

Happily, what's also true is there is a huge amount of support – in language features, tools, and community will – to help developers do that migration. Much more than most other migrations I've observed.

So what's inevitable is: either a code base will benefit from all that support and be migrated to Python 3 and hence be maintainable as the Python ecosystem evolves; or it will be increasingly an outsider of that ecosystem.

-- \ “I have one rule to live by: Don't make it worse.” —Hazel | `\ Woodcock | o_) | Ben Finney

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