[Tutor] Python 3 for Beginners was: (Re: intro book for python)

[Leam Hall]

On 09/03/2017 10:06 AM, David Rock wrote:
> 
>> On Sep 3, 2017, at 08:55, Mats Wichmann <mats at wichmann.us> wrote:
>>
>> On 09/03/2017 04:02 AM, Leam Hall wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone that uses python on Linux has to use Python 2.
>>
>> Every current distro I know of has a python 3 package, plus lots and
>> lots of add-ons in python 3 mode.  It's quite easy to use python 3 as a
>> result... and if that doesn't work you can install your own to your
>> workspace (rather than as a "system package") just as easily.
> 
> While a bit anecdotal, the complaint is valid.  Red Hat does not support Python 3 in their base installation on RHEL and the only way to get it “officially” (i.e., directly from Red hat) is through Software Collections, which is a bit cumbersome to use and not available in all cases.  There are a lot of places (including where I work) that frown heavily on using packages that aren’t from the base repositories from the OS maintainers.
> 
> Installing into “your own workspace” isn’t so easy when you are talking about 2000 servers, either.  In order for me to write code that I know will work across all the servers, I have to use python 2 because I know it will be there.  I can’t say the same thing about python 3, and that’s not something I’m likely to be able to fix within the bounds of company procedures.
> 
> So while the original statement is obviously false, the heart of why it was said is functionally true.

Sorry; there's a significant gap between what I wrote and what I meant. 
My fault.

If you use the OS system's Python then you're using Python 2. That will 
continue for the next five or more years. I'm in the same boat as David; 
installing Python 3 is a non-starter. That's not the case for a lot of 
folks, but if I'm going to write something there's a high probability 
that Python 3 won't be on the target machine.

While I prefer 2 over 3, if I went in to work and everything was 
magically Python 3 based I wouldn't whine. Much.

Sorry for the miscommunication earlier.

Leam