myths about python 3

[David Malcolm]

On Wed, 2010-01-27 at 16:25 -0500, Benjamin Kaplan wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 3:56 PM, John Nagle <nagle at animats.com> wrote:
> > Daniel Fetchinson wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi folks,
> >>
> >> I was going to write this post for a while because all sorts of myths
> >> periodically come up on this list about python 3. I don't think the
> >> posters mean to spread false information on purpose, they simply are
> >> not aware of the facts.
> >>
> >> My list is surely incomplete, please feel free to post your favorite
> >> misconception about python 3 that people periodically state, claim or
> >> ask about.
> >
> > Myths about Python 3:
> >
> > 1.  Python 3 is supported by major Linux distributions.
> >
> >        FALSE - most distros are shipping with Python 2.4, or 2.5 at best.
> >
> The latest versions of Ubuntu Jaunty and Karmic, Fedora 11 and 12, and
> OpenSUSE 11.2 all use Python 2.6. Ubuntu has been shipping python 3
> since Jaunty came out last April. According to Fedora's package index,
> Python 3 is in the devel version which probably means it will be in
> upcoming versions of Fedora as well.

FWIW, more information on Fedora python 3 status here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Python3F13

[snip]

> Give the package maintainers time to update. There were some pretty
> big changes to the C API. Most of the major 3rd party packages like
> numpy and MySQLdb have already commited to having a Python 3 version.
> They just haven't gotten them out yet.

I'll take this opportunity to make a shameless plug for my 2to3c tool:
http://dmalcolm.livejournal.com/3935.html

which takes some of the grunt work out of taking C code and making it
compilable against both 2 and 3.  (it will still require a human to do
some of the work, alas).


Hope this is helpful
Dave