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I'm a Rubyist. Why are Python users so doubled down on keeping on with Python 2? I can't imagine using Ruby 1.8.x at this point, and even older versions seem we

by tibbon 9y ago

I'm a Rubyist. Why are Python users so doubled down on keeping on with Python 2? I can't imagine using Ruby 1.8.x at this point, and even older versions seem well outside the realm of consideration.

Zeklandia 9y ago
There are a few major convention changes, most notably that print is now a function and must be formatted differently to work. People are using libraries that aren't being updated because some people don't want to go update their old work, especially scientists who made the libraries as part of a paper years ago and haven't touched it since.
- FreakyT 9y ago
  So glad they changed print to a function; the old syntax looked so out of place.
welder 9y ago
We're not, nobody uses Python 2 anymore. It's just a shame we have to type "python3" and "pip3" now even when Python 3 is the default on a distro.
- cup-of-tea 9y ago
  I don't. I use pyenv and it's always just python, even though I have many different versions on my system.
  - welder 9y ago
    Same with virtualenv, but without users of scripts using pyenv or virtualenv the shebang is broken if it's pointing to #!/usr/bin/env python. Many users of scripts aren't python developers, so they won't be using pyenv or virtualenv. Just wish we had a cross-platform way to run python scripts reliably like we did when /usr/bin/python always existed.
- jrs95 9y ago
  FWIW I literally just got my boss on board with switching last week. There are still a lot of stragglers who are stuck thinking that they're going to have library compatibility issues with Python 3.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> I'm a Rubyist. Why are Python users so doubled down on keeping on with Python 2? There's a lot of good reasons Python 2 was stickier than Ruby 1.8.x, the biggest one of which is that Py 2 had had much broader use over a longer time than Ruby 1.8, which meant there were lots of people depending on lots of basically “done” code with non-active maintenance in lots of little but overlapping niches, while Ruby was mostly Rails and a few other big actively-maintained ecosystems that amounted to essentially the whole community. And the move off Ruby 1.8 still took years, was often bitterly divisive, and with plenty of talk of need to fork 1.8 and continue maintenance because large chunks of the community would never move (which, as with Python, continued even after most of the community had already moved.) It's just that's all a few years back (a lifetime in tech industry time) so most people forget that it happened.
sethish 9y ago
Python is used in more places, with more cranky people.

by tibbon 9y ago

I'm a Rubyist. Why are Python users so doubled down on keeping on with Python 2? I can't imagine using Ruby 1.8.x at this point, and even older versions seem well outside the realm of consideration.

Zeklandia 9y ago

There are a few major convention changes, most notably that print is now a function and must be formatted differently to work. People are using libraries that aren't being updated because some people don't want to go update their old work, especially scientists who made the libraries as part of a paper years ago and haven't touched it since.

FreakyT 9y ago
So glad they changed print to a function; the old syntax looked so out of place.

welder 9y ago

We're not, nobody uses Python 2 anymore. It's just a shame we have to type "python3" and "pip3" now even when Python 3 is the default on a distro.

cup-of-tea 9y ago
I don't. I use pyenv and it's always just python, even though I have many different versions on my system.
- welder 9y ago
  Same with virtualenv, but without users of scripts using pyenv or virtualenv the shebang is broken if it's pointing to #!/usr/bin/env python. Many users of scripts aren't python developers, so they won't be using pyenv or virtualenv. Just wish we had a cross-platform way to run python scripts reliably like we did when /usr/bin/python always existed.
jrs95 9y ago
FWIW I literally just got my boss on board with switching last week. There are still a lot of stragglers who are stuck thinking that they're going to have library compatibility issues with Python 3.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> I'm a Rubyist. Why are Python users so doubled down on keeping on with Python 2? There's a lot of good reasons Python 2 was stickier than Ruby 1.8.x, the biggest one of which is that Py 2 had had much broader use over a longer time than Ruby 1.8, which meant there were lots of people depending on lots of basically “done” code with non-active maintenance in lots of little but overlapping niches, while Ruby was mostly Rails and a few other big actively-maintained ecosystems that amounted to essentially the whole community. And the move off Ruby 1.8 still took years, was often bitterly divisive, and with plenty of talk of need to fork 1.8 and continue maintenance because large chunks of the community would never move (which, as with Python, continued even after most of the community had already moved.) It's just that's all a few years back (a lifetime in tech industry time) so most people forget that it happened.

sethish 9y ago

Python is used in more places, with more cranky people.