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One piece of software (a kind of custom package/build manager) I'm using at work still runs on Python 2. If it still works, why change it?

blauditore 7y ago
Because of potential vulnerabilities due to the lack of patches (in the future)?
- tsbinz 7y ago
  There will be patches. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS shipped with 2.7 and is supported until 2023. RHEL 7 shipped with 2.7 and is supported until 2024. What will be interesting to see is if there will be a "standard" fork that everybody pulls patches from, or if every vendor patches himself ...
  - baud147258 7y ago
    Though it's deployed on Windows...
- riazrizvi 7y ago
  Perhaps vulnerabilities are not a concern here.
beefee 7y ago
Because python2 isn't just a language that dissolves away once the program has been written. It's also a thick interpreter and runtime system that will slowly rot away without maintenance. It's yet to be seen how this runtime will be maintained in the future. Of course, given the enormous usage of python2 it's clear that it will be possible to use it far into the future. But it's really an unprecedented situation where an enormous software platform is abandoned by its developers. If this were a commercial product, it would filter through the long tail of software graveyards like Oracle and Computer Associates. I imagine the main annoyances in the future python2 landscape will be vendor fragmentation and diverging implementations.
- userbinator 7y ago
  It's also a thick interpreter and runtime system that will slowly rot away without maintenance. I've never understood where this mentality comes from. I have programs 30+ years old, and still use them because they work perfectly fine.
  - toyg 7y ago
    MacOS just killed anything with only a 32bit build. Who knows, in 10 years they might do the same to 64bit. Even on one of the most conservative platforms ever, Windows, old programs will often struggle to run. And now that the network is also essential, there are a bunch of other sources of rot: can the platform speak TLS 1.99 with randogenerated certitokens? Will it understand http/5 and blockchained dns? That’s “where this mentality comes from”.
riazrizvi 7y ago
You could always configure that software to run with a local Python2 by changing the way it is called. Then you can move on to Python3 for other stuff. No need to get left behind.

blauditore 7y ago

Because of potential vulnerabilities due to the lack of patches (in the future)?

tsbinz 7y ago
There will be patches. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS shipped with 2.7 and is supported until 2023. RHEL 7 shipped with 2.7 and is supported until 2024. What will be interesting to see is if there will be a "standard" fork that everybody pulls patches from, or if every vendor patches himself ...
- baud147258 7y ago
  Though it's deployed on Windows...
riazrizvi 7y ago
Perhaps vulnerabilities are not a concern here.

beefee 7y ago

Because python2 isn't just a language that dissolves away once the program has been written. It's also a thick interpreter and runtime system that will slowly rot away without maintenance. It's yet to be seen how this runtime will be maintained in the future. Of course, given the enormous usage of python2 it's clear that it will be possible to use it far into the future. But it's really an unprecedented situation where an enormous software platform is abandoned by its developers. If this were a commercial product, it would filter through the long tail of software graveyards like Oracle and Computer Associates. I imagine the main annoyances in the future python2 landscape will be vendor fragmentation and diverging implementations.

userbinator 7y ago
It's also a thick interpreter and runtime system that will slowly rot away without maintenance. I've never understood where this mentality comes from. I have programs 30+ years old, and still use them because they work perfectly fine.
- toyg 7y ago
  MacOS just killed anything with only a 32bit build. Who knows, in 10 years they might do the same to 64bit. Even on one of the most conservative platforms ever, Windows, old programs will often struggle to run. And now that the network is also essential, there are a bunch of other sources of rot: can the platform speak TLS 1.99 with randogenerated certitokens? Will it understand http/5 and blockchained dns? That’s “where this mentality comes from”.

riazrizvi 7y ago

You could always configure that software to run with a local Python2 by changing the way it is called. Then you can move on to Python3 for other stuff. No need to get left behind.