Re: /usr/bin/python2 again

[Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com>]

On Wednesday, April 13, 2011 03:06:17 PM Philipp Kern wrote:
> On 2011-04-13, Piotr Ożarowski <piotr@debian.org> wrote:
> > [Barry Warsaw, 2011-04-13]
> > 
> >> On Apr 13, 2011, at 10:00 AM, Michael Gilbert wrote:
> >> >I think it makes more sense to have a release or two where users can
> >> >fall back on python2.  Well there needs to be at least one
> >> >where /usr/bin/python becomes python3 alerting users to the change and
> >> >giving them the python2 fallback, just so they have time to be prepared
> >> >for the permanent change.
> >> 
> >> I do agree that we could add the python2 symlink now so that folks who
> >> want to prepare can start changing their #! lines to use
> >> /usr/bin/python2.
> > 
> > what's the point? /usr/bin/python2 will not work either when we'll drop
> > support for Python 2.X. How about providing python3-foo packages as
> > soon as possible (to make it easier to migrate) instead of wasting time
> > on /usr/bin/python2 mess?
> 
> Given that other distributions will also pick up python2 due to PEP-0394 it
> doesn't feel like wasted time if we want to foster cross-distro
> compatibility.

So far the PEP is just a draft.  I suspect something like this will eventually 
get approved.  When that happens (and upstream figures out how they will ship 
/usr/bin/python2 within python2.7) then I think that's a good point.  For now, 
I think it's premature.

Scott K