Re: Python Alternatives?

[Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu>]

Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org> writes:

> Michael Milliman <michael.e.milliman@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I currently have both Python 2.7 and Python 3.4 installed on my debain
>> 8.5 (jessie) system.  The default Python interpreter on the system is
>> Python 2.7 (as linked by /usr/bin/python).
>
> The policy for Python in Debian requires that “/usr/bin/python’ is the
> default Python 2 interpreter, and ‘/usr/bin/python3’ is the default
> Python 3 interpreter.
>
> There is no “default Python interpreter” in Debian. Python 2 and Python
> 3 are incompatible run-time systems.

snowball:518$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jun  3  2016 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7*

python2.7 is the default python on my system for any reasonable value of
"default".  I didn't set that link, the installation process did.

>> I would prefer [the ‘/usr/bin/python’ interpreter] to be Python 3.4.
>
> That would violate Debian Python policy. You are free to do it on your
> own system, but it will likely break many Python packages on Debian, and
> you get to keep all the pieces :-)