3 ms·

Calibre author have said that despite python2 eol he will not transition to python3 and that he is "perfectly capable of maintaining python2 himself"

bayindirh 8y ago
However it seems that people are slowly migrating Calibre to Python 3. Also looks like any Python3 patch doesn't break the current Calibre build is welcome indeed.
- ascii_only 8y ago
  Yes. I should have been more clear. He is not against python3 but thinks that it is less work to maintain python2 than port calibre to newer version.
  - qwerty456127 8y ago
    This sounds like Calibre codebase is a mess that needs to be refactored.
    - darkpuma 8y ago
      To be honest the best part of Calibre, the `ebook-convert` tool, is already broken out from the rest of it. It's similar to pandoc though in my opinion often does a nicer job.
    - PurpleRamen 8y ago
      Even the best codebase can't effortless be ported. Calibre seems to have something around 25 MB of python-code, several external plugins, some C-code and other languages. Transition of this would take quite some time. Additionally, there is the problem of compability. Configuration in Calibre is python-code, and on several corners the user can mod stuff. Any transition would need to make sure to not brake things to hard.
    - megablast 8y ago
      Oh. Like every single codebase ever then?
rat9988 8y ago
To be honest, I don't see why would you port it to python 3. Isn't it already working? Are there any python 2 bug hampering its development?
- bayindirh 8y ago
  Because Python2's end of life is announced. There'll be no Python 2.8, 2.9 or future. It may get some security fixes, but it'll be abandoned then.
  - jiva 8y ago
    "there will be no updates, not even source-only security patches" from the man himself: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2018-March/152348.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2018-March/1523...
- PurpleRamen 8y ago
  Python2 will be at end of support next year. That means slowly it will become harder and harder to make calibre runable on modern systems. 3rd-party librays will decline and receive no updates. Python2-interpreter will not be installable out-of-the-box. There will be no security-updates or new features. Python2 as a platform will slowly die and any application depending on it will die with it. Though, this won't become a serious problem in the next years, but more like 5-10+ years. It's sad, but the reality now.
  - qwerty456127 8y ago
    To be honest, I doubt corporations will give Python 2 up easily. Currently Python 2 codebase in use in production is probably fairly huge and is just working. Look at how hard it is to convince enterprises to give up Internet Explorer even though Microsoft itself says they should really end using it. Someone like Red Hat will probably keep maintaining Python 2 for at least some years more.
    - PurpleRamen 8y ago

bayindirh 8y ago

However it seems that people are slowly migrating Calibre to Python 3. Also looks like any Python3 patch doesn't break the current Calibre build is welcome indeed.

ascii_only 8y ago
Yes. I should have been more clear. He is not against python3 but thinks that it is less work to maintain python2 than port calibre to newer version.
- qwerty456127 8y ago
  This sounds like Calibre codebase is a mess that needs to be refactored.
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    To be honest the best part of Calibre, the `ebook-convert` tool, is already broken out from the rest of it. It's similar to pandoc though in my opinion often does a nicer job.
  - PurpleRamen 8y ago
    Even the best codebase can't effortless be ported. Calibre seems to have something around 25 MB of python-code, several external plugins, some C-code and other languages. Transition of this would take quite some time. Additionally, there is the problem of compability. Configuration in Calibre is python-code, and on several corners the user can mod stuff. Any transition would need to make sure to not brake things to hard.
  - megablast 8y ago
    Oh. Like every single codebase ever then?

rat9988 8y ago

To be honest, I don't see why would you port it to python 3. Isn't it already working? Are there any python 2 bug hampering its development?

bayindirh 8y ago
Because Python2's end of life is announced. There'll be no Python 2.8, 2.9 or future. It may get some security fixes, but it'll be abandoned then.
- jiva 8y ago
  "there will be no updates, not even source-only security patches" from the man himself: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2018-March/152348.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2018-March/1523...
PurpleRamen 8y ago
Python2 will be at end of support next year. That means slowly it will become harder and harder to make calibre runable on modern systems. 3rd-party librays will decline and receive no updates. Python2-interpreter will not be installable out-of-the-box. There will be no security-updates or new features. Python2 as a platform will slowly die and any application depending on it will die with it. Though, this won't become a serious problem in the next years, but more like 5-10+ years. It's sad, but the reality now.
- qwerty456127 8y ago
  To be honest, I doubt corporations will give Python 2 up easily. Currently Python 2 codebase in use in production is probably fairly huge and is just working. Look at how hard it is to convince enterprises to give up Internet Explorer even though Microsoft itself says they should really end using it. Someone like Red Hat will probably keep maintaining Python 2 for at least some years more.
  - PurpleRamen 8y ago