[Python-ideas] Looking for input to help with the pip situation

[Nick Coghlan]

On 15 November 2017 at 01:23, Stephan Houben <stephanh42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Nick,
>
> 2017-11-14 11:07 GMT+01:00 Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com>:
>
>> On 14 November 2017 at 16:47, Michel Desmoulin <desmoulinmichel at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Proposal A:
>>> -----------
>>>
>>> Suffix Python executable on Windows like on Unix, so that people will
>>> type pythonX.X if they want a specify version.
>>>
>>> Pros: easy and discoverable.
>>>
>>> Cons: you need a lot of stuff in the system path.
>>>
>>
>> Con: we hope to have the problem resolved on the Linux distro side such
>> that "python" typically means "python" by the time community support for
>> Python 2 ends in 2020. Since Windows has gone the better part of two
>> decades without version Python commands, adding them because we're
>> impatient with the pace of change at the Linux distro level doesn't really
>> make sense (especially when Linux holds such a small fraction of the
>> non-phone client device market).
>>
>
> Perhaps I could sell you on the idea of a Windows "python3" executable,
> not as the New Official Way to do things,
> but rather as a pragmatic measure to make code from those Linux weirdos
> ;-)
>

Aye, I'm not opposed to adding pythonX and pythonX.Y binaries or symlinks
to the Windows installers as a way to make Linux-assuming tutorials
slightly more likely to work for Windows users.

I'm only opposed to promoting that as the new preferred way of launching
Python from the Windows command line, if for no other reason than if the
release after Python 3.9 actually does end up being Python 4.0, then we
only have around 5 more years of "the latest Python" and "the latest Python
3.x" being the same thing :)

Cheers,
Nick.

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