G'day, not subscribed, I hope this doesn't bounce, spotted the thread from DWN and thought I'd toss in a comment.
Why not make python a virtual package and use the Debian alternatives system for handling the not-quite-backwards-compatible Python versions? This is what is used for the not-quite-inter-compatible awk's (gawk, nawk, etc). That way people can stick with python1.5 if they want, or even install both and set either one as the default, but still be able to explicitly specify one or the other if they want. I realise this is an old topic, probably overkill, and more complicated. However, it does sorta future-proof the python packages against non-backwards-compatible Python releases. I think this is what the tcl packages use (which is why you can end up with multiple variants of tcl installed to meet the dependencies various packages have for particular versions of tcl). I think that multiple version packages are a pain, but without them you require every single package that requires python to upgrade when there is a python upgrade that breaks them. Maybe that is a good thing...one Python for all, all for one Python. Just my 2c... ABO
