On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Alex Bolgarov <alex@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> you all think the proper fix is for >> me to put in the docs something like "on Arch systems you need to do >> [x] before building", whether [x] is "get the PKGBUILD with the patch >> from AUR" or even "run the sed-python-with-python2.sh included in the >> distribution". > > I personally don't think it is a proper fix - I think it is not a fix > at all. My opinion is that Python3 is sufficiently different from > Python2 to be considered a new language, not just a new version of old > (thus it would be appropriate to use new name, 'python3', for it, > leaving 'python' forever referring to python2). (That is, desire to be > on the bleeding edge does not warrant breaking existing software) http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2011-March/108562.html ... the thread starts here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2011-March/108491.html ... if it hasn't been linked already. that discussion led to the aforementioned PEP, and was generally well-received (hence creation of the PEP). > If I were you, I would probably stop putting shebangs into my Python > scripts (so that they would be not executables), and write a shell > wrapper script for every python script that figures out during runtime > how python2 executable is called, and call python2 script using this > python executables (or write single script with symbolic links to it > with different names and use $0 shell variable to find which python > script to call). you can factor out pieces into separate files and selectively import based on various criteria, like any other module. create an small bootstrap file that is python2/3 compatible and either run/import according to the binary you're running under, or re-exec under a different one (slightly rude form a user's perspective, but possible). a little funky, but you can test syntax using eval: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/446052/python-best-way-to-check-for-python-version-in-program-that-uses-new-language-f/446061#446061 ... and catch SyntaxError. per: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2011-March/108495.html http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2011-March/108499.html ... not sure if that's changed, but Arch isn't alone ... there was an incubation period of a couple years, until 3.2 release, for applications/libraries to catch up. python3 is here now, so let's give her a big welcome, and move on ;-) -- C Anthony
