From: Alex Hall on
Hi all,
I am just curious: if Python3.x is already out, why is 2.7 being
released? Are there two main types of Python? Thanks.

--
Have a great day,
Alex (msg sent from GMail website)
mehgcap(a)gmail.com; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap
From: Alf P. Steinbach on
* Alex Hall:
> Hi all,
> I am just curious: if Python3.x is already out, why is 2.7 being
> released? Are there two main types of Python? Thanks.

Old code and old programming habits may work as-is with 2.7 but not with a 3.x
implementation.

So yes, there are two main extant variants of Python, 2.x and 3.x (and more if
you count even earlier versions).

2.7 helps to ease the transition, and provides bug-fixes and better efficiency
for the 2.x variant.


Cheers & hth.,

- Alf
From: Ben Finney on
Alex Hall <mehgcap(a)gmail.com> writes:

> I am just curious: if Python3.x is already out, why is 2.7 being
> released? Are there two main types of Python?

Python 3.x brings improvements that break backward compatibility:

Python 3.0 (a.k.a. "Python 3000" or "Py3k") is a new version of the
language that is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The
language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how
built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed
considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been
removed. Also, the standard library has been reorganized in a few
prominent places.

<URL:http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.0/>

For that reason, when Python 3.x was being planned, the Python
developers committed to supporting Python 2.x with backward-compatible
releases for an indeterminate length of time to allow third-party
libraries to steadily migrate to Python 3.x so it becomes more
attractive to use it for all new development.

Python 2.7 has been announced to be the last feature release in the 2.x
series:

Python 2.7 is scheduled to be the last major version in the 2.x
series before it moves into 5 years of bugfix-only mode.

<URL:http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7/>

--
\ “The Initial Mystery that attends any journey is: how did the |
`\ traveller reach his starting point in the first place?” —Louise |
_o__) Bogan, _Journey Around My Room_ |
Ben Finney
From: Alex Hall on
Thanks, everyone, for the answers! I am still on 2.6 since so many
packages rely on it. I got 3.1 at first, but I could not get much to
work with it so I installed 2.6 and have only found one package which
refuses to work, instead of a lot of them.

On 4/13/10, Shashwat Anand <anand.shashwat(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> It is like releasing window Xp SP3 even if Vista is out.
>
> The problem is we should start using python 3.x but many application like
> django, twisted had not migrated yet. Hence this stuff to support 2.x . 2.7
> is the last 2.x version, no more.
>
> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Alf P. Steinbach <alfps(a)start.no> wrote:
>
>> * Alex Hall:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>> I am just curious: if Python3.x is already out, why is 2.7 being
>>> released? Are there two main types of Python? Thanks.
>>>
>>
>> Old code and old programming habits may work as-is with 2.7 but not with a
>> 3.x implementation.
>>
>> So yes, there are two main extant variants of Python, 2.x and 3.x (and
>> more
>> if you count even earlier versions).
>>
>> 2.7 helps to ease the transition, and provides bug-fixes and better
>> efficiency for the 2.x variant.
>>
>>
>> Cheers & hth.,
>>
>> - Alf
>> --
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>>
>


--
Have a great day,
Alex (msg sent from GMail website)
mehgcap(a)gmail.com; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap
From: Terry Reedy on
On 4/13/2010 9:54 AM, Alex Hall wrote:
> Thanks, everyone, for the answers! I am still on 2.6 since so many
> packages rely on it. I got 3.1 at first, but I could not get much to
> work with it so I installed 2.6 and have only found one package which
> refuses to work, instead of a lot of them.

2.7, now in beta, is aimed at a June release with 3.2 to follow maybe in
Dec.

I believe the numpy folks are targeting 3.2. That will enable packages
that depend on numpy to do the same.