Why Python 3?

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 3:23 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> LibreOffice bundles 3.3. So anyone who does Python scripting in LibreOffice
> is using Python 3.

This much I agree with...

> Actually, I believe LO uses Python internally for some of
> its scripting. If so, everyone using LO is indirectly using 3.3.

... but this is kinda pushing it, I think. You're not *using* it any
more than you're using Python whenever you post to Savoynet [1] -
after all, Savoynet is a Mailman list, and Mailman runs on Python. But
all those theatre people don't become Python users because of that.
I'd have to say that "using Python 3" means writing code that runs in
Python 3. So the LO people would, by your statement, be using Py3.3,
as would anyone who actually writes LO scripts; but someone who just
fires up LO, edits a document in the WYSIWYG editor, and goes about
his business, isn't really using Python.

Though the broader definition does have its uses. It's fun to explain
to someone how that little device that shows him a map and where he is
on it is depending on both special and general relativity. (GPS
signals are strongly based on time, and the satellites are moving
relative to the observer, and gravity is weaker up there.) But you're
not really making use of the science yourself, you're depending on
someone else having made use of it - same as you can hop on an
airliner without understanding the physics of flight, much less the
effects of birdstrike on jet engines. You're just glad that someone,
somewhere, has worked all that out :)

ChrisA

[1] http://savoynet.oakapplepress.com/