Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 12, 2009 11:00 UTC (Thu) by samtherecordman (guest, #43207)
In reply to: Python moratorium and the future of 2.x by jschrod
Parent article: Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

The Python community should work closely with the distros, including the enterprise distros, to get it packaged and part of the base install. I'm a Fedora user and Python programmer and I can't even get Python 3 as an offical package in Fedora 11 (a fairly recent distro).

I see it's been scheduled for Fedora 13 as an optional package - see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Python3F13 and this bugzilla entry as well https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=526126

If it's not in Fedora yet it's certainly not going to hit the enterprise variants RedHat/CentOS for a long time yet (I'm not so familiar with other distros so can't comment on these).

Not being able to install Python 3 using the package manager is a barrier to Python 3 adoption for me. I can't even write simple scripts in it since for some machines I use there are controls on what can be globally installed (i.e. only packaged applications).

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 12, 2009 13:10 UTC (Thu) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] (5 responses)

Fedora doesn't have Python3?! Wow.

It's been a simple "apt-get install" in Ubuntu for the last couple of releases. You can run
Python2 and Python3 side by side easily. I thought Fedora was supposed to promote the use
of new technologies. Why are they at the forefront of holding this one back? As if a new
buggy, redundant, and unneeded sound server is more worthy of promotion than major
improvements to a much used programming language.

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 12, 2009 13:52 UTC (Thu) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (4 responses)

I personally have Python 2.4, Python 2.5, and Python 2.6 installed and
Python 3.1 installable through apt-get. :)

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 12, 2009 14:38 UTC (Thu) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (3 responses)

Python 3 has been available for Fedora for a long time but without actual applications taking advantage of it, it hasn't been very useful. Fedora 13 is going a bit beyond that and integrating not only the base language but also a number of libraries and updating core pieces like the RPM Python binding so that Python 3 is more useful in the real world.

Since your favorite distribution also made the deliberate choice of using PulseAudio by default, they must be thinking that it is awesome as well :-)

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 13, 2009 5:52 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] (2 responses)

What does "available" mean, exactly? Is it in Fedora's official repos or not? Remember that
Python plays 2 separate roles in most distros. It's the runtime for various OS utilities... and a
development platform for users who program. As a Python programmer, I don't care all that
much what version of Python that print manager is using. But I care very much about the
quality of support for the latest 2.x and 3.x versions of Python and associated modules. Both
of which are first class in my "favorite" distro. Though I generally prefer the term "preferred"
to "favorite". One should not get too attached to any one distro. It distorts one's perspective.

At any rate, while Shuttleworth will almost certainly eventually end up in Heaven, I'm
recommending a couple of extra days in purgatory for the PulseAudio thing. Lennart's going
straight to Hell, though. :-)

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 13, 2009 9:51 UTC (Fri) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

As a python programmer, it is readily available and packaged as a parallel installable single RPM for a very long time already. The Fedora 13 plan is for better integration to take the first steps for it to be used for distribution utilities. Since Fedora uses Python extensively including for Anaconda, yum, system configuration utilities etc, this is a incremental process.

If you want to imagine sending any free and open source software developer to non existent places, feel free to.

Python moratorium and the future of 2.x

Posted Nov 17, 2009 20:23 UTC (Tue) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

This is one time that I would cheer Fedora on in their much vaunted effort to facilitate the
adoption of new technology. But a year after the release of Python 3, is seems like Fedora is
just now making it to the starting line. As a Python consumer, it seems to me that there
would be more interest, on Fedora's part, in helping to get past this 2->3 pot hole in the road.
In short: "Fedora, we need you now. Where are you?"