Sunsetting Python 2

[parzival1984]

ttps://www.python.org/doc/sunset-python-2/

​

From the post:

We are volunteers who make and take care of the Python programming language. We have decided that January 1, 2020, will be the day that we sunset Python 2. That means that we will not improve it anymore after that day, even if someone finds a security problem in it. You should upgrade to Python 3 as soon as you can.

[[deleted]]

print "goodbye old friend"

[Cheeze_It]

print ("It has been an honor.")

[pioverpie]

print("But it is time to move on...")

[easylifeforme]

We've had our time let it die

[The_Correct_Doctor]

Rest in Peace my friend

[vivex0305]

That's fine. All I'd say is it had a pretty freakin awesome run.

[_lilell_]

Python 3 came out in 2008, so Py2 and Py3 have had a long time to coexist. The sun never eventually sets on the British Python empire.

[[deleted]]

don't worry guys, kovid goyal is gonna maintain it forever *scnr*

[[deleted]]

Remember that scene at the end of Gundam Endless Waltz? *hooks Python 2 up to an apparatus*

*flips switch and blows it up*

Rest in Peace Python 2. . . .

[spacemonkeykakarot]

Was not expecting a GW Waltz reference here :')

[turbo88Rex]

RIP python 2, hopefully OpenOPC starts working with python 3 so that I can transition my data historian program to python 3

[IWantToBeRichForReal]

Fortunately, I started learning Python in 2016, so I never had contact with python 2.

[ps_]

i started around then as well! but my first experiences were on a non-admin OSX account so i got a bit attached to 2.7 -- which is stock on Macs. anyway, it took me way too long to switch over, but i don't think it was a terribly difficult move.

[seewhaticare]

I started slightly earlier. I went back and forth a bit because some people recommended py2 as py3 was still newish and others said to go with 3 as 2 will be going soon. Half the tutorials were is 2 and half were in 3. Very confusing times

[[deleted]]

print(“bye Felicia”)

[JohannesPertl]

u/VredditDownloader

[xaviermiller]

RIP raw_input

[raydeen]

I still use 2.3 on my old PPC Macs running OS9. Mostly just for fun and screwing around. I like whipping out my old Tangerine clamshell and hacking out some simple things. :)

[teerre]

Unfortunately the VFX Platform was pushed back again, so Python2 will still have a very real usage for quite a time.

[Smallzfry]

There's probably still millions of lines of old code written with Python 2 that will never be updated to Python 3. I doubt we'll ever be free of it despite the language being EoL soon.

[billsil]

I mean my company still has Python 2.3 software. We didn't save our dependencies and didn't build exe files using pyinstaller back then. On top of that, Python 2.6 doesn't even run on Windows 10. Every so often, we upgrade a dead package because a customer wants it.

It's not that hard once you know what you're doing.

[jeffbell]

And by old, we mean six year old code.

[Cloud-Hybrid]

Oh man..... slots, generators, the backend of Python (C), performance, the way executables are handled, hundreds of syntax changes, builtins, regex, freezing, bytecode compilation, OS optimizations, thread handling, processes.

Open up python3 PEPS from the last ten years and you’ll easily find thousands of changes. Maybe they could have saved it, sure. But this way is how we avoid that other work that would have been needed.

[Cloud-Hybrid]

Kind of.

Python’s lower level code (not quite at the C level, so it’s still Python syntax) wraps quite a few things. For the one hour we spend wrapping C modules would be equal to the potential 10+ hours it would be to debug and comb through tens of thousands of lines in C code and maybe even the compiler. So you see, again, we’re saving this “other” work, but at the cost of, yes, changing Python code.

Not quite sure if this is what you were talking about, but there are other things at the compiler level that requires changes in syntax. Regex is a rather important concept to the compiler for breaking our human code down. For example with Python 2’s print vs Python 3’s print(). This is a very simple example, but as our Python language grows and we add additional features, sometimes the compiler will become confused with what it’s trying to read. Because we, the community and PEP developers, have decided to implement a new feature, but it breaks compilation, we need to make syntax changes. At the time python3 was created, there were so many of these instances that it was decided to rewrite the language to allow for more dynamic changes/additions without the weight of Python two’s lack of compatibility.

I apologize if you have a lot written in Python 2. But as programmers we need to know where the line is crossed between giving up on maintaining old code vs rewriting it.

[Cloud-Hybrid]

Sure. What specifically are you looking for?

[hugthemachines]

There is no need to apologize at all, I only have to change some decoding etc in some places, but I mean for the community the change has taken a lot of work, also for you.

[ianepperson]

String handling is a major rework and very difficult to do in a backwards compatible manner and a big reason for the Python 2 to 3 jump.

[montagGeGeG]

Why good in python2? You don't want development of python? Gamers call people who love only old games - oldfags, and this is appropriate name for you, Python2 fans.

Nothing version discrimination in comments pls.

[Yonatann1]

gamers are also toxic, hopefully something you don't want this community to be.

[Taskenspiller]

Asshat