[Tutor] python update

[Eryk Sun]

On 1/14/22, Alan Gauld via Tutor <tutor at python.org> wrote:
>
> I'm still running 3.8 on one computer and 3.6 on another. I might
> upgrade after the next major release but maybe not.

Technically speaking, Python's version scheme is major.minor.micro.
For example, for 3.11.0:

    >>> sys.version_info.major
    3
    >>> sys.version_info.minor
    11
    >>> sys.version_info.micro
    0

In practice, 3.x is usually referred to as a "major" (i.e.
significant) version of the language.

Anyway, a 'minor' update (e.g. updating the micro version from 3.10.1
to 3.10.2) usually gets released every 3-4 months. This is an in-place
upgrade, assuming it's the same build architecture (e.g. x86 or
x86-64), so it's usually painless. However, unless it's an urgently
needed bug fix or security fix, your life will be simpler if you wait
a few weeks before upgrading, or hold off until it's really necessary.
A minor update might mistakenly introduce bugs or new behavior, in
which case a new update might have to be released ahead of schedule to
correct the problem(s).

The lifetime of a 'major' release is about 5 years, but installers are
only made available for a couple years. For example, 3.6.0 was
released on 2016-12-23, and the last update was 3.6.15 on 2021-09-04.
However, the last version released with an installer was 3.6.8 on
2018-12-24. Versions 3.6.9 to 3.6.15 were source only releases, in
which case for Windows you would need to build your own installer.
(It's not hard to build the installer if you have the required version
of Visual Studio and some experience building software.)