On Sep 01, 2010, at 12:33 AM, Marian Sigler wrote: >> Given how much work is required to change the default Python, does it >> make sense to just skip Python 2.6 and use 2.7 as the default Python >> version in Squeeze? >What has emerged here? I see that it won't be the default, but will it >be at least included at all? > >For most python users (I assume) it will be of great benefit already if >just pure python without all those packages debian provides would be >available (also) in version 2.7. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Squeeze is frozen, it's too late to add support for Python 2.7, let alone make it the default. Technically, I think we're probably not yet ready to fully support Python 2.7 anyway, but we're perhaps not far. I wanted to get Python 2.7 as an officially supported version for Ubuntu 10.10, but that didn't happen either. It will be available, but not officially supported. I do expect that we'll turn on support very early in the Ubuntu 11.04 development cycle, and if things go well, I'll push for making it the default. In order to get here, I've done a lot of work analyzing, building, and fixing packages for Python 2.7, starting with the Ubuntu main repository and moving on to universe. We still have a handful of packages in main that ftbfs for 2.7, and a greater number in universe, but the total count is not insurmountable. There are still some outstanding questions though, such as how to test pure-Python packages which don't get built and we only find incompatibilities at install time. I'm working on some tools to gather these metrics and track development. All of this work should flow back into Debian, if it doesn't already come from there first. For example, numpy 1.4 fixes the ftbfs for Python 2.7. I basically did a sync from sid and built it in my Python 2.7 enabled chroot, then uploaded it to my Python 2.7 enabled PPA. Anything that I have to fix explicitly (e.g. the Subversion bindings) I'm trying to first work with upstream, and then get the changes into Debian, from which will flow into Ubuntu. For example, I have changes for python-defaults, python-support, and python-central to enable Python 2.7 support. Perhaps we can get those into unstable soon? I'm just now catching up after summer vacations, but plan on updating my tools and wiki pages to coordinate this effort. I'll interact mostly on this mailing list, but occasionally on ubuntu-devel for Ubuntu specific stuff (if there is anything). All help folks want to lend to the effort will be greatly appreciated! Cheers, -Barry
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