Noob in Python. Problem with fairly simple test case

[Terry Reedy]

On 7/17/2015 12:15 AM, Rick Johnson wrote:
> On Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 9:44:56 PM UTC-5, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> [...] My take from all this is that overall, Python 3
>> take-up is probably > around 10% of all Python users,
>
> All that rambling just to agree with me? My educated guess
> is a minimum of 75% still using Python2.x.

I would call that a strong majority.

> But i'll take your 90% because it makes my argument stronger! O:-D

Unlike Chris, I would see that as a 'vast majority'.

But these relative numbers are, as near as I can tell, restricted to the 
english-speaking world, perhaps extended to the latin-1 based world. 
Anyone who wants unicode identifiers must use Python 3 (or a translated 
Python like ChinesePython).  Anyone seriously working with Unicode will 
find 3.3+ more pleasant, if not required (especially on Windows).

On Amazon, the first hit for 'Japanese Python' is Dive into Python 3 
(Japanese edition).  As near as I can tell, there is no Japanese edition 
for the original Dive into Python (2).  As I remember, half the Python 
books I saw in Japan *3 years ago* were for Python 3.

Overall, I suspect that Python 3 penetration is greater in Asia.

Rick, I only care about porting of public libraries.  Leave your private 
code in Python 2.  Continue writing new code in Python 2 if you wish.  I 
only object to those who pressure others to not port to or writes in 
Python 3.

If you want to help 2.7 become better, we need people test and backport 
patches to 2.7. Since 2.x bugs me as much as 3.x seems to bug you, I am 
considering not backporting until someone volunteers to help.

Now my question for you or anyone else: If the vast majority of Python 
programmers are focused on 2.7, why are volunteers to help fix 2.7 bugs 
so scarce?  Does they all consider it perfect (or sufficient) as is? 
Should the core developers who do not personally use 2.7 stop 
backporting, because no one cares if they do?

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy