On 5 January 2016 at 14:14, Nicholas Chammas <nicholas.chammas@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for sharing that background, Nick.
>
> Instead, the main step which has been taken (driven in no small part
> by the Python 3 transition) is the creation of PyPI counterparts for
> modules that see substantial updates that are backwards compatible
> with earlier versions (importlib2, for example, lets you use the
> Python 3 import system in Python 2).
>
> So is the intention that, over the long term, these PyPI counterparts would
> cannibalize their standard library equivalents in terms of usage?

Probably not - the baseline versions will almost certainly always be
used more heavily simply due to being available by default.

What the PyPI releases mean is that the folks for whom the standard
library version is old enough to be annoying now have the freedom to
choose between selectively updating just that component and upgrading
to a new version of the language runtime, and the former is important
when you don't have full control over the target runtime environment
(e.g. many folks are paid to support the system Python runtimes on
various versions of Linux, and only drop support for those old
versions when the Linux vendors do).