At PyCon Ireland 2010, Paul described his experience of working with Python 3 in creating O'Reilly's Head First Programming and Head First Python (both of which target Python 3). As a big fan of Python 3, Paul suggested that all Python 2 programmers needed to at least try Python 3 as soon as was practical, if not embrace it for all "new" work. In this talk, Paul provides an update on the current status of Python 3 and discusses the community's adoption (or lack of) the latest version of the Python programming language, talking about what has changed in the year and a bit since last year, as well as describing his own experience of working with Python on recent consultancy projects.

1. What's the scoop with Python 3?
Paul Barry – Institute of Technology, Carlow in Ireland
PyCon Ireland 2011
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2. Grab the slides:
http://paulbarry.itcarlow.ie/Python3.pdf

3. Start working with
Python 3 now!
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4. It seems nobody was listening...
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5. So... what's the scoop?
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6. Despite going from strength-to-strength,
Python 3 has yet to replace Python 2
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7. WTF?
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8. Despite being nearly 3 years old,
Python 3 has yet to replace Python 2
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9. That's OK
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10. In the short-to-medium term,
Python 3 wasn't meant to replace Python 2
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11. Not yet, anyway...
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12. I wonder are the
coffee refills
free today?
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13. Which version of
Python
should I use
today?
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14. Not an either-or decision
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15. What do the good folk at python.org have to say?
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16. Point #1 - Use 2 instead of 3
“... if you're deploying to an environment you don't
control, that may impose a specific version rather
than allowing you a free selection from the
available versions.”
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17. I recently worked on a project that unashamedly
specified Python 2.6.4 as the target platform
(even though the work was XML-based)
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18. Point #2 - Use 2 instead of 3
“... if you want to use a specific third party
package or utility that doesn't yet have a released
version that is compatible with Python 3, and
porting that package is a non-trivial task...”
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19. Another project (wisely) selected Django as
the target web-dev platform... which meant more
work for me in Python 2.x
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20. Point #3 - Use 2 instead of 3
“... if you wish to use an alternative
implementation of Python such as IronPython,
Jython or PyPy...”
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21. A third project specified the .NET platform,
but didn't care which language I used...
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22. A third project specified the .NET platform,
but didn't care which language I used...
I used IronPython and was restricted
to working with the 2.7 release of Python
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23. It's hard to get away from
Python 2...
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24. It's hard to get away from
Python 2...
… especially when Python 2.7 isn't half-bad
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25. So, like, dude...
what's the problem?
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26. Eventually, 2.x won't cut it anymore...
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27. Python 2.x is
DEAD
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28. It will soon start to smell
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29. This talk's
BIG
MESSAGE
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30. Your current 2.x codebase is now
LEGACY
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31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

34. How can you say
such a thing?
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35. At some point, you'll have to port all
of your “current” 2.x code to Python 3
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36. Python 3 will soon become
THE DEFAULT
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37. This Is Your Future:
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38. Imagine if this was to happen with some
other distribution or OS...?!?
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39. Prevailing attitudes towards Python 3
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40. I'll just ignore
it and it'll
go away.
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41. Ignore the future at your
PERIL
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42. Whatever were they thinking?
Sure, the print statement
doesn't even work!!!
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43. The print statement in 2.x is
BROKEN
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44. There's no good
Python 3 specific
books out there.
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46. 46

47. This is all rubbish! We'll just keep
writing 2.x code
FOREVER...
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48. You are in
DENIAL
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49. Be honest... there's
not one single feature
that demands the
upgrade, right?
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50. UNICODE
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51. 51

52. Look – we can't
do anything until those
guys over there update
their code...
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53. Look – we can't
do anything until those
guys over there update
their code... I agree - let's
do nothing.
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54. If you do
NOTHING
you are in
DENIAL
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56. 56

57. 57

58. 58

59. I'm back where I started
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60. Start working with
Python 3 now!
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61. Start your Python 3
porting effort now!
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62. Your love life
depends on it!!!
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63. I really do love you...
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64. That's nice. But, I'd
love you more if only
you'd port your code
to Python 3.
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65. Final question to those of you
that think you can “survive”
with Python 2.x
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66. How many of you are still supporting
Python 1.x code?
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67. Questions?
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