[tlug] Python 2 versus Python 3 (was: Re: Distro support matrix)

[jep200404@example.com]

On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:42:15 +0900, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:

> Aside: why is Ubuntu close to latest release on most things, but way
> behind on Python (2.7x from 11.04 to snapshot, yet latest is 3.3.2
> apparently; centos is still on 2.6)?
> ...ah, answered my own question: 3.x is not backwards compatible [1].
> But 3.0 was released in Dec, 2008... Wow, they must really have changed
> things to have the distros still refusing to stock it after 5 years!

Indeed. 

Today, the vast majority of Python development work is being done 
in Python 2. Although Python 3 is not backwards compatible with 
Python 2, the differences are not hard to do. The problem is the 
libraries. Significant programs rely heavily on libraries. 
Porting those libraries from Python 2 to Python 3 is what's 
holding back the move to Python 3. There's a site tracking that. 
It used to be called the "Python 3 Wall of Shame". 
Now it's called the "Python 3 Wall of Superpowers". 

https://python3wos.appspot.com/

So if you want to write a big program in Python, 
you probably start with the newest version of Python 2, 
which seems to be 2.7.5 from 2013-05-15. 
The newest (stable?) version of Python 3 seems to be 3.3.2 
from 2013-05-15. 
Both Python 2 and Python 3 are actively maintained. 

http://python.org/
http://wiki.python.org/moin/Python2orPython3