[Python-Dev] Python 2/3 porting HOWTO has been updated

[Nick Coghlan]

On 6 December 2014 at 14:40, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6 December 2014 at 10:44, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
>> On Fri, Dec 5, 2014, at 18:16, Donald Stufft wrote:
>>> Do we need to update it? Can it just redirect to the 3 version?
>>
>> Technically, yes, of course. However, that would unexpected take you out
>> of the Python 2 docs "context". Also, that doesn't solve the problem for
>> the downloadable versions of the docs.
>
> As Benjamin says, we'll likely want to update the Python 2 version
> eventually for the benefit of the downloadable version of the docs,
> but Brett's also right it makes sense to wait for feedback on the
> Python 3 version and then backport the most up to date text wholesale.
>
> In terms of the text itself, this is a great update Brett - thanks!
>
> A couple of specific notes:
>
> * http://python-future.org/compatible_idioms.html is my favourite
> short list of "What are the specific Python 2 only habits that I need
> to unlearn in order to start writing 2/3 compatible code?". It could
> be worth mentioning in addition to the What's New documents and the
> full Python 3 Porting book.
>
> * it's potentially worth explicitly noting the "bytes(index_value)"
> and "str(bytes_value)" traps when discussing the bytes/text changes.
> Those do rather different things in Python 2 & 3, but won't emit an
> error or warning in either version.

Given that 3.4 and 2.7.9 will be the first exposure some users will
have had to pip, would it perhaps be worth explicitly mentioning the
"pip install <X>" commands for the various tools? At least pylint's
PyPI page only gives the manual download instructions, including which
dependencies you will need to install.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia