Why Python3

[Terry Reedy]

On 6/28/2010 12:25 AM, John Nagle wrote:

> Unfortunately, that's not what's happening in the development
> pipeline.

Please do some research before posting year-old news as current news.

 > Unladen Swallow targets Python 2.6.1.

It used 2.6 for development because that was the current stable release 
when they started. They are targeting 3.3 for possible integration with 
CPython.
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3146/
Note that this is accepted, at least in principle.

 > IronPython targets Python 2.6.

They plan to release a 2.7 version sometime this year after CPython2.7 
is released. They plan to release a 3.2 version early next year, soon 
after CPython. They should be able to do that because they already have 
a 3.1 version mostly done (but will not release it as such) and 3.2 has 
no new syntax, so the 3.1 development version will easily morph into a 
3.2 release version. I forget just where I read this, but here is a 
public article.
http://www.itworld.com/development/104506/python-3-and-ironpython
  Cameron Laird, Python/IronPython developer '''
As Jimmy Schementi, a Program Manager with Microsoft, e-mailed me last 
week, "IronPython's roadmap over the next year includes compatibility 
with Python 3. Also, we're planning on a release ... before our first 
3.2-compatible release which will target 2.7 compatibility."
'''

 > PyPy targets Python 2.5.

I believe that wherever I read about IronPython, I also read about PyPy 
people planning to do a 3.2 compatible PyPy about a year after it comes 
out. But this seems more tentative and I cannot verify.

> CPython 3.x is still very spotty.

I have no idea what you mean here. 3.2 will have all the bugfixes in 2.7 
that are relevant.


-- 
Terry Jan Reedy