Python 3

[Robert Collins]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Barry Warsaw <barry at canonical.com> wrote:
>>Being tied to 2.4 for at least 1 more year, if not 4 more years, is
>>really going to hurt switching to python3. As having 2.4+3 compatibility
>>is just hard.
>
> Definitely.  It doesn't just affect Bazaar though, it hurts every Python
> application that wants to run on supported versions of RHEL5.

Yup. And see recent threads on Python-dev too. Even now, years later,
the complete break in Python 3 is still a source of angst.

> The only remotely possible solution would be to cut off Python < 2.6 support
> in Bazaar at some point but ensure that newer versions are still wire
> compatible with older versions for as long as you need.  Then, RHEL5 users
> could still run the old clients and servers while folks that talk to them with
> newer versions of Bazaar would still be able to do so.
>
> Not fun though.

Very not fun - it transfers a burden (work with older python) to a
burden (under no circumstances stop supporting XYZ network call); it
also adds a burden to plugin developers - 'if you want your plugin to
be usable with a contributor on RHEL, write two versions, because you
have to use two bzrib versions'.

It would be nice to avoid that. Perhaps 2.8 or 3.3 could be more compatible?

-Rob