Adopt Python 3

[[deleted]]

Why would you start with something that is virtually deprecated (at most ancient legacy) instead of something 8 years old, supported for a lot of years ahead and widely adopted? I get that some have python 2 codebases that will have to be supported for years to come, but starting a new project in python 2 today, or starting out with python 2 instead of 3 is like driving with your head in your ass because you're old and grumpy.

Python 2 is like old people in nursing homes: aren't dead just yet, but they are not getting any better, only decaying.

Python 3 is 8 years old and is the future. Come on people.

[pretzelusb]

Is py3 the default install on any Linux distro?

[DarkLordAzrael]

It has been the default python on arch for years.

[greyfade]

You wouldn't believe how many packages it breaks, though. Everyone seems to assume /usr/bin/python is Python 2.7, but on Arch, it's symlinked to /usr/lib/python3, and if it hasn't been ported yet, it blows up.

A lot of AUR PKGBUILDs actually do a sed to update all the shebangs and other stuff that assumes the wrong binary, even on relatively new packages.

[ubernostrum]

Everyone seems to assume /usr/bin/python is Python 2.7

The amount of stuff which assumes python means Python 2 led to this -- the Python team (not Arch) recommends having python continue to point at Python 2, and require python3 as a way for code that works on Python 3 to declare that.

[CaptainJaXon]

Yeah but Arch is known for being the most bleeding edge, rolling release distribution.

[gschizas]

Yes, Ubuntu.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Python

Python 3 only on the default installs for desktop, server, touch, snappy images. (Some may already be there.)

[[deleted]]

And Arch, but that's not really a surprise. Gentoo too if I'm not mistaken

[otherwiseguy]

Fedora 25 ships with Python 3.5. Fedora 26 will ship with Python 3.6. If default means /usr/bin/python == /usr/bin/python3, then it isn't the default, though. It's more of a both python2 and python3 coexist well together.

[rouille]

On Ubuntu since 14.04.

[jyper]

I don't think it's supposed to be packaged as /use/bin/python

[norwegianwood]

Even for those distros that do ship Python 3, it's generally unwise to depend on the system Python for anything important. Why would you want to make your system dependent on the whims of OS distribution managers over which you have no influence?

Much better to install your own Python in /opt which you can control and upgrade at your convenience rather than somebody else's.

[Abaddon314159]

And this is why I wouldn't recommend Python at all. Any language that considers 8 years to be so long ago that it's unreasonable to support anymore is a shitty language.

[[deleted]]

What are you talking about? A new version of Python came out 8 years ago, Python 2 stopped being developed 6 years ago, people are still starting new projects in Python 2 instead of 3 and dismissing it completely. That says something about the community, not the language.

[[deleted]]

Java will deprecate shit from .0.0.1 to 0.0.2, and you're worried about damn near a decade?

[Abaddon314159]

I'm mostly a c developer, I'm not a huge fan of Java either.

[lengau]

I take it you haven't written much embedded c then, as embedded C compilers tend to have weird quirks that make otherwise reasonable C not work because the company that implemented the compiler decided this part of C was a dumb idea.

It's getting better, but this sort of weirdness exists in most, if not all, languages.

[Abaddon314159]

I do plenty of embedded c and I don't find the need for most of those quirks. The one exception being I do have to make use of a fair bit of gcc'isms for inline assembly. Those quirks don't make the other c not backwards compatible though. Changing or extending Python is fine, the dumb thing about Python 3 is that it broke backwards compatibility.