[Python-Dev] Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream

[Guido van Rossum]

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 4:56 AM, Piotr Ożarowski <piotr at debian.org> wrote:
> [Sandro Tosi, 2011-03-02]
>> On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 10:01, Piotr Ożarowski <piotr at debian.org> wrote:
>> > I co-maintain with Matthias a package that provides /usr/bin/python
>> > symlink in Debian and I can confirm that it will always point to Python
>> > 2.X. We also do not plan to add /usr/bin/python2 symlink (and I guess
>> > only accepted PEP can change that)
>>
>> Can you please explain why you NACK this proposed change?
>
> it encourages people to change /usr/bin/python symlink to point to
> python3.X which I'm strongly against (how can I tell that upstream
> author meant python3.X and not python2.X without checking the code?)

But the same is already true for python2.X vs. python2.Y. Explicit is
better than implicit etc. Plus, 5 years from now everybody is going to
be annoyed that "python" still refers to some ancient unused version
of Python.

If it takes a PEP to change your position, let's write the PEP.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)