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Hi, I am for the first time installing Python on a Mac running OS 12.6 (Monterey). The Install package nicely put a Python folder in my Applications file and presumable distributed many other things around. I had to go to a third-party site to discover that python is actually in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framwork…. So right now, not having done anything, when I open a Mac terminal window and type python or python -V, it still thinks I have no version installed. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that the installer would at least have put a link in one of the directories in the default PATH? But failing that your documentation needs to suggest how you get the Terminal to recognize that Python has been installed. And maybe to discuss IDLE, which is another totally new thing to me, but appears to be your alternative to running python from the Terminal?? At least tell me that, if that is true! I am not a developer! I know Mac OS is not everyone’s favorite operating system (and maybe some day I’ll manage to move myself on to Linux; Windows is out of the question) but for now, an awful lot of people live on Macs. Kathy
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Sorry for the delayed response, I just ran across your enquiry. The issue here is that you need to invoke Python with the command `python3`. For historical reasons, the command `python` was reserved for invoking earlier versions of Python, most recently Python 2.7, during the decade-long transition period when both Python 2 and Python 3 were often installed on the same system. Now that Python 2 has been officially retired and no longer being installed by default on most modern systems (regardless of operating system), it might be time to reassess that recommendation; another option might be to now provide a `python` alias or link to a reminder message. The Python docs working group is planning to discuss this issue in the near future.
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On Mon, Jan 30, 2023, at 10:00 PM, Ned Deily wrote:
To put some more information to this, various Linux distributions have already changed `/usr/bin/python` to refer to `python3`. I find that this was well documented in the Fedora change proposal [1] including what other distributions have done so far. Regards, Simon [1]: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FinalizingFedoraSwitchtoPython3#Detailed_Desc...
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Sorry for the delayed response, I just ran across your enquiry. The issue here is that you need to invoke Python with the command `python3`. For historical reasons, the command `python` was reserved for invoking earlier versions of Python, most recently Python 2.7, during the decade-long transition period when both Python 2 and Python 3 were often installed on the same system. Now that Python 2 has been officially retired and no longer being installed by default on most modern systems (regardless of operating system), it might be time to reassess that recommendation; another option might be to now provide a `python` alias or link to a reminder message. The Python docs working group is planning to discuss this issue in the near future.
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On Mon, Jan 30, 2023, at 10:00 PM, Ned Deily wrote:
To put some more information to this, various Linux distributions have already changed `/usr/bin/python` to refer to `python3`. I find that this was well documented in the Fedora change proposal [1] including what other distributions have done so far. Regards, Simon [1]: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FinalizingFedoraSwitchtoPython3#Detailed_Desc...
participants (3)
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Katherine Campbell
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Ned Deily
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Simon de Vlieger