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[Python-Dev] Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Thu Mar 3 00:00:54 CET 2011 
Am 02.03.2011 23:36, schrieb Jérôme Radix:
> No, I don't do it now. But taking like granted the fact that 2.x python
> will be dead in 5 years and that /usr/bin/python will point to python3
> is, imho, a little too optimistic.

I don't think Steven said, or assumed, a scope of 5 years - more like
a scope of 30 years. In 30 years, Python 2 will surely be dead (as
will likely be Python 3).

The defensive programming you promote is likely to fail. Many Python 2
scripts are syntactically invalid when interpreted as Python 3, so a
version test won't even be executed.

With separate python2 and python3 executables, people can have scripts
depend on the right binary.

In interactive mode, I would like to use /usr/bin/python be the
"current" Python binary always (even when Python 4.6 comes along).
Python will, interactively, greet me with its version number, and I
can adjust. So the idea of /usr/bin/python being reserved for Python 2
strikes me as inconvenient.

Regards,
Martin
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