[Python-ideas] Smoothing transition to Python 3

[Paul Moore]

On 10 June 2016 at 07:29, Pavol Lisy <pavol.lisy at gmail.com> wrote:
> It is why I like to see some guidlines how to do it. One practical
> possibility is (sorry for blasphemy) to (temporary!) drop support for
> python3.

That's certainly an option. If you're writing an in-house application,
then it's entirely reasonable to decide not to support a version of
Python you don't plan to go to. If you're writing in-house libraries,
saying "our company is not yet ready to support Python 3 for our
internal code" is perfectly reasonable.

If you're publishing code for external use, you have to decide whether
alienating customers who want Python 3 support is worth it - that's
again your decision. Only you know how many such customers you have.
There is no requirement on anyone to support Python 3. However,
there's a growing trend [1] to think of public software that doesn't
support Python 3 as stagnant, and for people to look for "more up to
date" replacements. That's something you have to consider when
deciding not to support Python 3.

Paul

[1] We can debate endlessly on how fast the growth is. But even
Twisted, the most highly visible project that I know of to struggle
with supporting Python 3, has felt enough pressure to invest massive
amounts of time in the porting effort.