[Python-Dev] Migrating to Python 3: the python 3 install issue (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Fri Oct 2 18:16:28 EDT 2015

On python-list, Chris Warrick reported (thread title): "The Nikola project is deprecating Python 2.7 (+2.x/3.x user survey results)" This is for the November release, with 2.7 dropped in the next version next year. (Nikola is a cross-platform unicode-based app for building static websites and blogs from user-written templates and (marked-up) text files. https://getnikola.com/ )

Since users do not write code to use Nikola, the survey was about installation of Python 3. At present, 1/2 have 3.x only, 1/3 2.x only, and 1/6 both. (So much for 'nobody uses 3.x for real work'.) Most of the 2.x only people are able and willing to install 3.x. https://getnikola.com/blog/env-survey-results-and-the-future-of-python-27.html

When Stefan Behnel asked why they did not drop the hard-to-maintain 2.7 version once they ported to 3.3, Chris answered

We did it now because it all started with frustration with 2.7 0. Also, doing it back in 2012/2013 would be problematic, because back then not all Linux distros had an easily installable Python 3 stack (and RHEL 7 still doesn’t have one in the default repos)

-- Terry Jan Reedy

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list