[Python-Dev] Python-3 transition in Arch Linux

[James Y Knight]

On Nov 4, 2010, at 8:43 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> All of the Arch users I know expect Arch to occasionally do radical
> things because they're the right things to do in the long run.

But the previous consensus (at least, as I, and presumably many other people understood it) was that python2 would remain the owner of the name "/usr/bin/python" for the indefinite future, and python3 would be invoked with /usr/bin/python3.

Given that, it's not at all clear that Arch's actions are the right thing to do.

IMO, moving away from that consensus should've been brought up on python-dev rather than just one distro just doing it all alone, causing incompatibilities and annoyance. If python-dev wants python3 to inherit the name /usr/bin/python, then python2 should've been installing a binary called /usr/bin/python2 for a couple years ahead of time, and recommending that everyone use that in their #! lines, so that the switch could've been done without breaking everything...

> Sure, and Guido should have exercised the Time Machine a little harder
> so that Python 3 never needed to happen.  IOW, this is the price of
> success and wide distribution.

Well, other programming languages seem to have avoided making sweeping bidirectionally-incompatible changes, despite being successful and widely distributed. But that's a whole other discussion.

James