Path: csiph.com!news.redatomik.org!aioe.org!bofh.it!news.nic.it!robomod From: Ben Finney Newsgroups: linux.debian.maint.python Subject: Re: Python 4 and =?utf-8?B?4oCYcHl0aG9uM+KAmQ==?= Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2016 23:30:02 +0100 Message-ID: References: X-Original-To: debian-python@lists.debian.org X-Mailbox-Line: From debian-python-request@lists.debian.org Wed Nov 2 22:29:54 2016 Old-Return-Path: X-Amavis-Spam-Status: No, score=-5.318 tagged_above=-10000 required=5.3 tests=[BAYES_00=-2, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS=0.001, LDO_WHITELIST=-5, RDNS_NONE=0.793, SARE_HEAD_8BIT_SPAM=0.888] autolearn=no autolearn_force=no X-Policyd-Weight: using cached result; rate: -6.1 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Lines: 51 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) X-Public-Key-ID: 0xAC128405 X-Public-Key-Fingerprint: 517C F14B B2F3 98B0 CB35 4855 B8B2 4C06 AC12 8405 X-Public-Key-URL: http://www.benfinney.id.au/contact/bfinney-pubkey.asc X-Post-From: Ben Finney Cancel-Lock: sha1:WJAtdVWNIqgG2NMi55Af/NdXSDU= X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/14313 List-ID: List-URL: List-Archive: https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/8537j9a545.fsf@benfinney.id.au Approved: robomod@news.nic.it Organization: linux.* mail to news gateway Sender: robomod@news.nic.it X-Original-Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2016 09:28:42 +1100 X-Original-Message-ID: <8537j9a545.fsf@benfinney.id.au> X-Original-References: <20161101102801.0350863b@subdivisions.wooz.org> <20161101171421.0368f9dc@subdivisions.wooz.org> <2202191.8VQVvDViSp@kitterma-e6430> <31ACB83D-3FF5-408E-BB71-8647D2FFC1CC@stufft.io> <857f8ma8s6.fsf_-_@benfinney.id.au> <20161102100853.46ecb3e2@subdivisions.wooz.org> X-Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org Xref: csiph.com linux.debian.maint.python:8969 Barry Warsaw writes: > On Nov 02, 2016, at 01:57 PM, Ben Finney wrote: > > >Certainly the command ‘python3’ should only ever point to the Python > >3 interpreter. > > > >If upstream ever releases a “Python 4” but expects the interpreter > >for that to also be named ‘python3’, I think we can declare upstream > >to be directly courting user pain, and secede on behalf of our users. > > I wouldn't at all be surprised if /usr/bin/python is reclaimed for > some future post-Python2-demise Python 4 interpreter. It might even be > a good thing since I'm not sure I'd want a /usr/bin/python4. What about a Python 4.0 that is just “the release that comes after 3.9”? Such a “Python 4.0” release would inevitably be referred to as Python 4, and inevitably will be considered *not the same* as ‘/usr/bin/python3’. That's what I'm saying is pointless user confusion: do we use ‘/usr/bin/python3’ for the interpreter? Do we use ‘/usr/bin/python4’? Why, if they're deliberately compatible interpreters — indeed, they may be the *same* interpreter? Such a thoroughly, and persistently, confusing state of affairs is entirely avoidable (just use Semantic Versioning, don't name it “4.0” until it's backward-incompatible with all “3.xx”). I had thought that was the sane and prevailing attitude of the Python release managers. But the above post implies that pointless confusion will be directly courted, merely because of some aesthetic objection to a two-digit component in the version string. > Not that I'm expecting Python 4 any time soon […] At the current rate of Python releases, it's not very far in the future before the Python release managers must decide what the version string for “the release that comes after 3.9” will be. Is there anyone seriously courting the idea that “Python 4.0 is part of the Python 3 line”? I would hope not, yet the above post implies it. Can that be quashed decisively? -- \ “If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn't open, and | `\ you friends are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag | _o__) would be to pretend you were swimming.” —Jack Handey | Ben Finney