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Would someone to care to chime in on an estimate as to when it would be advisable for amateurs to start employing 3.x? How far along are the libraries and the

by pero 16y ago

Would someone to care to chime in on an estimate as to when it would be advisable for amateurs to start employing 3.x? How far along are the libraries and the documentation/tutorials?

xiongchiamiov 16y ago
Use 3.x if you can. Use 2.x if a library you require hasn't been ported (or better, help them with it, although that's probably not a job for a self-described amateur).
- saurik 16y ago
  The problem with that plan is that you might not need a 2.x library right now, but when you need one tomorrow you're going to be really sad. In essence, Python 3.x is a brand new niche/minority language, and should be treated as such by people thinking of using it.
briancurtin 16y ago
As for docs and tutorials, I wrote one myself for the PSF Sprints group at http://docs.pythonsprints.com/python3_porting/ http://docs.pythonsprints.com/python3_porting/. Brett Cannon just came out with http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/pyporting.html http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/pyporting.html a few weeks ago. Both of these docs have a references section which lists a number of other porting guides that we borrowed from. Library support is so-so. It's actually surprising how many libs out there could be have an initial port completed in an hour. I would encourage anyone to look at a dependency of theirs, run it through 2to3, then see what it does. Sometimes it's as easy as making a few fixes and it runs fine. Obviously there are complicated projects out there where this isn't true, but I don't think there needs to be any distinction between amateur and professional porting levels. Just go for it. As I said in another post, taken from the movie Field of Dreams: "if you build it, they will come."
po 16y ago
I hate the name (because I don't think it's shameful) but this gives a good idea of where things are: http://python3wos.appspot.com/ http://python3wos.appspot.com/ For most people, the docs/tutorials aren't that big a deal because the differences aren't that great. If you're just beginning I would say read up on the differences between 2.x and 3 so you're aware of it but wait until the majority of projects are ported.
rgbrgb 16y ago
Start now! The sooner we get the ball rolling the better. Libraries are waiting on devs who are waiting on libraries. There are definitely enough compatible libraries for a brand new project. It's when you have to port old projects that things get tricky.

by pero 16y ago

Would someone to care to chime in on an estimate as to when it would be advisable for amateurs to start employing 3.x? How far along are the libraries and the documentation/tutorials?

xiongchiamiov 16y ago

Use 3.x if you can. Use 2.x if a library you require hasn't been ported (or better, help them with it, although that's probably not a job for a self-described amateur).

saurik 16y ago
The problem with that plan is that you might not need a 2.x library right now, but when you need one tomorrow you're going to be really sad. In essence, Python 3.x is a brand new niche/minority language, and should be treated as such by people thinking of using it.

briancurtin 16y ago

As for docs and tutorials, I wrote one myself for the PSF Sprints group at http://docs.pythonsprints.com/python3_porting/ http://docs.pythonsprints.com/python3_porting/. Brett Cannon just came out with http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/pyporting.html http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/pyporting.html a few weeks ago. Both of these docs have a references section which lists a number of other porting guides that we borrowed from. Library support is so-so. It's actually surprising how many libs out there could be have an initial port completed in an hour. I would encourage anyone to look at a dependency of theirs, run it through 2to3, then see what it does. Sometimes it's as easy as making a few fixes and it runs fine. Obviously there are complicated projects out there where this isn't true, but I don't think there needs to be any distinction between amateur and professional porting levels. Just go for it. As I said in another post, taken from the movie Field of Dreams: "if you build it, they will come."

po 16y ago

I hate the name (because I don't think it's shameful) but this gives a good idea of where things are: http://python3wos.appspot.com/ http://python3wos.appspot.com/ For most people, the docs/tutorials aren't that big a deal because the differences aren't that great. If you're just beginning I would say read up on the differences between 2.x and 3 so you're aware of it but wait until the majority of projects are ported.

rgbrgb 16y ago

Start now! The sooner we get the ball rolling the better. Libraries are waiting on devs who are waiting on libraries. There are definitely enough compatible libraries for a brand new project. It's when you have to port old projects that things get tricky.