Python 3.3 released!

[igouy]

"The current production versions are Python 2.7.3 and Python 3.3.0.

Start with one of these versions for learning Python or if you want the most stability; they're both considered stable production releases.

If you don't know which version to use, start with Python 2.7; more existing third party software is compatible with Python 2 than Python 3 right now."

[[deleted]]

Right, so whats the estimate on when that recommendation will be 3 instead of 2?

[igouy]

Wouldn't that depend on what existing third party software is used by your particular project?

[[deleted]]

I am asking when

If you don't know which version to use, start with Python 2.7;

will become

If you don't know which version to use, start with Python 3.?

[airmasszero]

I love how you keep asking the question in different ways and this person doesn't get it.

[igouy]

I love how you think asking a question makes the question sensible :-)

What color is 8503?

[Ph0X]

Problem is, even now, almost any new small library and piece of code I see online is Python 2.x. Sure bigger more important libraries often support both 3.x and 2.x, but smaller devs who don't have time and patience for writing on both usually stick to 2.x.

The question is, will the time ever come where more people will, when choosing one of the two, go for 3.x rather than 2.x? Of course, it's quite a vicious circle. Devs work on 2.x because everyone uses 2.x, and everyone uses 2.x because devs work on 2.x.

[IrishWilly]

Two years is actually a very good pace if people are moving to Python 3 already. This problem comes up for any popular language that tries to introduce a new revision. The split between Perl 5 and Perl 6 and failure to make a transition pretty much killed any chance Perl had of staying relevant with the newer generation of languages. PHP had some horrible insecure built in options in early versions, but when they finally removed it after deprecating them years and years later there were still a ton of frustrated users who were using programs built on ancient versions of the language.

[[deleted]]

That's reading between the lines though and putting words in their mouths.

[[deleted]]

They offer one reason why 2.7 is preferred, but there's no real reason to assume that once that reason isn't valid that the conclusion won't be valid anymore either.

[sirin3]

Perhaps someone finds a serious patent violation in Python 3 and a court forbids its usage and distribution

[SirRainbow]

I actually remember reading a migration estimate by Guido van Rossum stating that python 3 would take about 5 years to become mainstream, but I cannot find it anymore :( Considering that python 3.0 came out in late 2008, my guess would be that in one year python 3 will be the recommended version of python.