[python-win32] PythonWin

[Tim Roberts]

Harald Armin Massa wrote:
> Maybe, just maybe, you could be better of to "downgrade" to Python 2.5
> if you are just a beginner with Python and want to use some
> description from the web. Many tools and documentations are not
> updated to Python 2.6 yet.
>   

This is reasonable advice, but since he's a beginner, I'd like to expand
on WHY this is reasonable advice.

Python is in the middle of a rather significant transition, from Python
2 to Python 3.  Python 3 makes some many changes in the language, some
of which are incompatible with current code.  This was done to clean up
some of the things that should have been cleaned up long ago, but
couldn't because of compatibility.  Python 3.0 should be formally
released within the next 4 weeks or so.

Python 2.6 is a special "bridge" release; it contains some of the Python
3.0 changes, but in a way that helps you identify things that will need
to be migrated.  Because of that, it issues warnings for constructs that
are valid in Python 2.x, but will be invalid in Python 3.x.  For someone
who is just beginning, that is an unnecessary distraction.

Python 2.x and Python 3.x will coexist in the world for many years yet,
so there's nothing wrong with learning Python 2.x today.  But to do
that, I agree with Harald that you should probably start with Python
2.5.  Virtually all of the major tools work with Python 2.5.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.