[Python-Dev] Continuing 2.x

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Am 28.10.2010 18:07, schrieb lutz at rmi.net:
> Kristj?n Valur J?nsson <kristjan at ccpgames.com> writes:
>> James Y Knight said:
>> The python community has already decided many times over that Python2 is dead 
>> and Python3 is the future
>>
>> But the patient is very much alive and kicking, no matter what the good doctor 
>> declares.  Python 2.x is in widespread use, with gazillion lines of .py code.  
>> In, there is another gazillion lines of .c and .cpp code both in extensions and 
>> embedding applications in use.  I?m quite happy with the community at large 
>> moving its development focus to 3.x but it is a bit harsh to deprive those left 
>> behind of the keys to the old house.
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> Has anyone here analyzed download stats on py.org lately?

I don't think anybody here questions that usage of 2.x
is orders of magnitude larger than that of 3.x, and that
it will stay that way for quite some time.

If, by "Exactly", you also supported "it is a bit harsh",
then I disagree. It's not harsh at all. Existing 2.x users
are *not* deprived at all. 2.7 releases are still being made,
and existing 2.x code will continue to run just fine for many
years to come. Users who chose to ignore 3.x can well continue
to work in their projects, without having to worry that bugs
won't be fixed anymore.

> Please feel free to prove me wrong, but by my reckoning,
> and at least for Windows MSI installer files, people are 
> still downloading Python 2.X roughly 3 to 4 times more often
> than Python 3.X today, some 2 years after 3.X's release.

Again, no doubt about that - I readily believe you without
checking, and you could have said that the factor was 10
and I still would have believe it. It just doesn't worry
me.

> But one can't help 
> but wonder if most of the development community is focused 
> on some imaginary future user base, at the expense of the 
> much larger current user base.

Yes, we do focus on future users, but we are also working
on future releases. But not at the expense of the much larger
current user base. They are being given much time to convert
their code to 3.x. So far, there has been no pressure at
all to migrate. Now, we are telling them that there won't
be new features in 2.x anymore - but many haven't switched
to 2.7, either.

Debian still ships with 2.5, and the next Debian release will be
shipping with 2.6. So any theoretical 2.8 release would be
just as irrelevant to existing users for many years to come
(e.g. the *next* Debian release would switch to 2.7).

Regards,
Martin