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0 pointsdwheeler5y ago0 comments

> If you started only making new stuff in python 3 in 2010 2 years after python 3 came out how much python 2 would you have to convert?

In many organizations there was never a time where they could start writing new code in Python 3. They needed to write code that was compatible with their existing python 2 code, and the only way to do that is to continue to write new code in python 2. Rinse, lather, repeat.

This is why the failure to provide a gradual transition was so bad. When I write new code in Python I use python3, but that assumes that there are python3 modules available that I need.

If you have infinite money this is not a problem. But I think we should be sympathetic to the people who do not have infinite money and have never been given a realistic upgrade path from 2 to 3. The 2to3 program is not a workable solution for many.

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pseudalopex5y ago· 2 in thread

You could write Python 2 that was compatible with Python 3 or at least would be easy to convert.

user59944615y ago

Not until the year 2015 and python 3.5 around the corner.

That's when the interpreter finally got the minimum support required to make code compatible with both, and linters improved enough, and some libraries started being ported.

pseudalopex5y ago

six 1.0 was in 2011.[1] 50% of the top 200 packages were compatible by the end of 2012.[2] And there were features you could use in 2008 to make the eventual conversion easier.

[1] https://github.com/benjaminp/six/commits/1.0.0

[2] https://python3wos.appspot.com/

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