[Python-ideas] Migration of /usr/bin/python to python3

[Andrew Barnert]

On Mar 14, 2015, at 8:47 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Mar 14, 2015, at 08:03 AM, Andrew Barnert wrote:
>> 
>> Continuing to use python rather than python2 will work out of the box on
>> nearly every *nix system today, with no exceptions larger than Arch
>> Linux.
> 
> The part of the PEP aimed at Python distribution providers should recommend
> that `python2` be used in preference of just `python` and that the symlink be
> present.

Sure, that's exactly what it recommends. But you can't retroactively make the symlink present on, say, OS X 10.10 or CentOS 5, so what good does that recommendation actually do?

Maybe in 5-10 years we'll be at a point where you can count on the symlink being there on most *nix systems that have Python 2 pre-installed. Except, of course, that most *nix systems won't have Python 2 pre-installed anymore by then (and those that do will probably overlap quite a bit with the ones that don't have the symlink).