On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 3:00 PM, <fons@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:10:03PM -0500, C Anthony Risinger wrote: > >> the point is that it really, really, really... doesn't matter what >> `python` is symlinked to. developers need to have the competence to >> instruct the system appropriately, and construct the environment they >> need to function properly. if you rely on a particular behavior from >> a moving target, then your app is already broken. > > Problem is that some packages for the time being *have* to be Python 2, > most notably anything numpy or related to it. Adapting numpy to P3 is > not just a matter of changing some details. Up to now numpy has had its > own multidimensional array classes. The new buffer interface in P3 is > superior to these, so numpy should (and probably will) migrate to this. > But this is not a simple operation, it involves a lot more than the > normal P2 or P3 transition supported by the existing tools. slightly nit picky :-), but numpy supports py3k AFAIK. i am also on the vpython (visual) list, and they were talking about how vpython now works on py3k because numpy supports py3k. wikipedia/official site seems to confirm this as well. and alas, if a package *must* be python2, it should enforce this itself by blowing up :-). it mainly needs to make it easy to manually run under python2.x... this is actually all i had to do to fix pyjamas (python -> javascript translator); pyjamas was spawning subprocesses during the translation phase, but it was simply calling `python` (assumption)... sooo, all i had to do was make it check sys.executable for a valid entry, and use that instead, thus passing on the current interpreter (python2/whatever), instead of inadvertently running py3k. > At the same time other packages (from Arch) expect python to link to > python3. Things would be *much* easier if *all* would refer explicitly > to either 2 or 3, instead of assuming some default. In that sense the > Arch decision seems unfortunate. and therein lies the problem: expectation is the root of all disappointment. really though, i agree with you 100%; this is why i previously said i hope the python2/python3 naming becomes defacto, so apps that *must* use the 2.x series can reasonably do so, cross-distro, simply by invoking `python2`. as for `python`... i just don't see any reason why it shouldn't link to the latest release; 'to not break unprepared apps that have known about this transition for years' just isn't a good enough reason in my opinion. C Anthony
