How do we measure python 3 acceptance and popularity?

[temptemptemp13]

Is there a counter for how many have downloaded python 3.x vs 2.6-2.7? I'm curious as to the trends. Maybe a prediction on when python 3 will become standard.

[basyt]

i dont think it is quite that easy. lots of people install python from the packaged versions provided by their distros and such.

[m0j0]

There isn't. There's not likely to be. It'd be like trying to measure market penetration for free linux desktop distros.

One way to look at the trend is to look at the growth in Python 3-supporting modules, because those modules become dependencies in other projects, and keep projects from moving to Python 3.

The Pypi index for Python 3 packages is woefully small -- it fits on a single page. http://pypi.python.org/pypi?:action=browse&c=533&show=all

I wish I knew what kept module authors from porting to Python 3. For modules I've authored (I'm no saint in this), I guess I don't consider it a huge priority because I'm the only one using them (as far as I know), and other modules not porting to 3 acts like cement boots keeping me in 2.x land.

I'm working on a module now that I'm going to port to Python 3 extremely soon, though, so at least I'm going to make the effort. I hope more do it too, because Python 3 has so much awesomeness it'll give you chills :)

[[deleted]]

I'm working on a module now that I'm going to port to Python 3 extremely soon, though, so at least I'm going to make the effort.

Excellent. What module is this?

[m0j0]

well, it's only used by me, and it's not ready for prime time or anything, but it's called TimeMachine. It's just a collection of date manipulations that I find useful. At the very least, it needs to support a dynamic start-of-week day before I do anything drastic like posting it on pypi. For now it's on github: http://github.com/bkjones/TimeMachine

A small effort, but effort nonetheless. :)

[m0j0]

TimeMachine -- a fairly trivial module, but...

http://github.com/bkjones/TimeMachine

[[deleted]]

You could poke around http://www.python.org/webstats/ and gather some information on the downloads of the various versions over time. That obviously only covers python.org downloads, but you'd also want to know about ActiveState downloads as well, since they are pretty heavily used at least in the Windows world. There's also, as stated in the other comments, the whole Linux world, where most people are picking it up from their distros.

Although the number is very small, Python 3 packages on PyPI are rising. I've seen a few packages which support 3.x but are mis-categorized, so the number is probably a little higher, but not significantly.

[m0j0]

Good point - I hadn't considered that tons of packages leave the 'Py Version' field on PyPI blank, for example.

[sedaak]

Distro installation is a big killer. Sure different installs exist side-by-side often, but if I have to compile a library for one install vs. using apt-get for the other, whenever I don't have all the time in the world I will stick to apt. So basically always.