[Python-ideas] Make py.exe default to Python 3

[Oscar Benjamin]

On 13 March 2016 at 11:39, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 13 March 2016 at 04:09, Andrew Barnert via Python-ideas
> <python-ideas at python.org> wrote:
>> At any rate, this seems to be a separate issue from the one this thread is about. It's already true that py.exe is Windows-specific; no change to what it does is going to make the same command lines work on Windows and *nix. Only some new proposal (add a py command for Unix, add python2 and python3 links for Windows, make Python.exe itself a dispatcher as Apple's /usr/bin/python is on Mac, ...) is going to help you. So you might be better off creating a new thread instead of adding on to one that's mostly been resolved and a lot of people have stopped reading.
>
> Agreed.

I guess it's maybe just because this thread has made me realise that
py.exe has changed purpose with respect to what it seemed (to me) to
be before. When I was using Windows I used to always arrange for
python and python3 to be available on PATH and I only used the "py"
command as a way of explicitly selecting a particular non-default
Python version. The idea that the default for py.exe needs to be
python 3 suggests that people are now using "py" as the primary
command line invocation of Python on Windows. I think is unfortunate
as it takes Windows off in a different direction from every other OS.
That intention wasn't the impression I had of PEP 397 at the time.

--
Oscar