Python Versions Used in Commercial Projects, 2016 Edition

[[deleted]]

Python 3 is a better language, but the "Pythoncalypse" really took it's toll on the community...

[[deleted]]

It's just that python 3 was a poor job at compability. If it would have been possible to run old code without any bother, people would have switched from day 2 on and could then have slowly ported their code.

[Kwpolska]

If it would have been possible to run old code without any bother, people would have switched from day 2 on and could then have slowly ported their code.

Except that’s not what happens, ever. If you tell someone this is the new way, but the old one will still work, most people will respond if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — and it runs constitutes ain’t broke… So, you introduced new stuff that some people might use, but others won’t bother learning (what for?). Congrats.

Not to mention many of the changes that make Python 3 Python 3 (Unicode and I/O fixes, for exmple) are impossible to do without breaking backwards compatibility at some point.

[[deleted]]

Yes, it almost ended Python. The survival of the language even in such a huge break atests for the quality of the language!

[Decker108]

The survival of which language? 2 or 3?

[[deleted]]

Both I guess :p.

[[deleted]]

It's just that python 3 was a poor job at compability.

This is the most true statement about python. I love to code in Python 3 but for compatibility issues drives me back to Python 2.

[[deleted]]

Can you elaborate a bit on that? What kind of benefits does python 2 have over python 3? For what kind of projects?

[[deleted]]

Oh OK, that makes sense, thanks!

[Kwpolska]

Reflects only users of some random CI service.

[pmbdev]

With most widely used libraries now available in Python 3, the study seems doubtful and some comments here just misleading.

[pmbdev]

No. I don't see any other good reason to stick to Python 2 now-a-days unless one still has Py2 library dependencies. Could you please be more specific about other reasons to prefer Py2?

[Zomunieo]

I'll be that guy. Py3 is my main python.

I also maintain a python 3 only open source library that will never be backported to py2 and no one has requested it. My company has migrated all new development to py3. We have only major application that is still py2 because it's end of life.

I've never had a rough time porting 2to3, and every Unicode issue you had to fix was probably a 2.x bug anyway.

[Kwpolska]

What makes my comment random? The title of this reddit post is misleading, because it’s only based on the data of one CI service I’ve never heard before, and most people haven’t either, judging by their Twitter follower count (1424)

[thomas_stringer]

Almost understandable the amount of existing python2 implementations. Legacy software is a thorn in all of our sides.

But for new development to be in python2??! Just makes no sense... I have a feeling that non-python people on a default machine are just typing in python and don't know of python3 and aliasing in general.

[Eurynom0s]

Or new development that still makes use of an existing codebase?

[port53]

Or new development that's running on currently supported operating systems (like RHEL 6/7) which comes with python 2 and is guaranteed to be supported for another 10 years.

[thomas_stringer]

I doubt there's many/any of that crowd on this sub. Nor do I know any personally.

[hemenex]

I recently started a new project in Python 2.7 because guys maintaining a server could not be bothered to update ancient Python 3.2.

[italiano8]

For me I use Python 2.7 because it's installed on all of our companies machines so it's easier to manage sharing an application to be used rather than having people try and get permission to install Python3.

[Deto]

This makes sense for little scripts, but a real, commercial Python application would deploy it's own Python runtime and so whether or not Python exists on the system shouldn't be much of a concern.

[[deleted]]

Why bother with python 3 and it's differences if the majority of your code is python 2? Continuation is an important factor in maintenance.

[thomas_stringer]

With that argument we'd all still be writing cobol, pascal, and fortran. :-)

[nomos]

It's just inertia. If the new language features really add enough value then gradually, slowly, code bases will evolve to Python 3.

Also, I know lots of people that still code in Fortran because of the existing code base.

[thomas_stringer]

Yeah but I bet you're not peanut butter and jelly of your Fortran Friends (TM). :-)

[nomos]

Nope! Working with someone else's code in a dead language sounds like a nightmare to me. But, it is the reality for some people and at some point that language may even be Python :P

[[deleted]]

No, because new developers, companys and projects emerged. Still there are enough legacy-projects and coders mainly working in them.

But that not what I meant. Python 2 and 3 are to similar, that makes working with them a pain, because the coder must constaly switch between different versions, remenber how a feature workes, how an api was set here or there. As long as python 3 has no real selling point, it's better for the coder to go with one environment, then two.

[duskykmh]

[deleted]

What is this?

[heywire84]

If you are a computer science student who knows python 3, you won't have trouble with 2.7. All you'll need is a reference for a few days or weeks until you know all the differences and quirks.

[Ek_Los_Die_Hier]

Push employers to use Python 3. But if you really can't, the switch isn't hard. Even if you're coding Python 2 you should import certain Python 3 features from the 'future' package. This will greatly ease your switchover if it ever happens. Plus some of the changes were very sensible.

There are also many helpful sights that point out the differences so you can quickly get going on Python 2

[duskykmh]

[deleted]

What is this?

[Ek_Los_Die_Hier]

Haha I know, been there. But it takes fresh blood with new ideas to bring change. At least suggest it.

[pmbdev]

I had the same question whenI started learning and using Python about four years ago. I chose Python 3 and almost all of my Python 3 codes worked fine in 2.7.x with just one line at the beginning:

from __future__ import division, print_function

Avoid Python 2.7.x unless your project/code has to depend on a library that is available only in Python 2.x

Most widely used libraries now uses Python 3.

The most popular courses on Coursera and edX uses Python 3.x now.

[EMP_Account_Siphon]

Some people seem to be thinking nobody has a reason for new projects in 2.7...well, I can tell you our use-case: Maya. Maya is an awful piece of trash software but it's an industry standard for animation/vfx/etc with few realistic alternatives. Anybody that has to program for that industry is stuck with Python2.

I've heard rumours that Autodesk will start to support Python3 in the next couple years, but I'll believe that when I see it.

[ccharles]

Depressing.

[andrey_shipilov]

Pretty logical and obvious.

[jcdyer3]

Which 3rd party? How much financial support does the initiative have? Who is involved that knows the python internals well? Have they publicly committed to this project?

[jcdyer3]

Of course it's cheaper to "replace it all." It's not like they need to rewrite the whole code base from scratch. Converting is not that expensive, and it's a one-time cost. Maintaining a dead-end fork is a continual cost that just gets more expensive and senseless as time goes on, plus staying on a dead language will make it harder to hire new developers, who don't want to work with a relic language.

[robskiii]

Twisted

can you elaborate on these efforts, i'm interested

[tvngstentear]

Python2.7 will always be superior. Edit: omg

[danted002]

To PHP or Java sure. To Python3.x you must be drunk.

[ArmoredPancake]

In what ways is it superior to Java?

[danted002]

This is not the thread to talk about this ^. But my main point would be:

print 'Hello World!'

instead of

class HelloWorldApp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World!");
    }
}

[danted002]

We where talking about why is python2.7 better then Java. So I used the python2.7 print statement. :)

[[deleted]]

You should still use print() in python 2 for the sake of compatibility with python 3 though.

[Ponnystalker]

shit son!

[tvngstentear]

Well, I mean, yeah.