On Jun 06, 2017, at 10:57 AM, Sandro Tosi wrote: >if we plan (and it looks like we do) to support and distribute 2.7 >with buster, why not support it *properly*? what's the point of >deprecating python2.7? either we ship it or not, but if we do then >let's not cripple it by removing python2 modules packages. do yo think >that just because the module i want to use is not available will make >realize "oh sh*t, let's migrate this 50k lines of code application to >py3k so that i can implement this 5-minutes-of-work-funcionality if i >had the module on py2"?
So what's the plan for when upstream stops supporting Python 2 in 2020? Given the pronouncement at Pycon 2017 that maintenance will end at Pycon 2020, we really need to decide what Debian's official policy will be, and what the timeline will be to get there. If Buster is 2 years in development, that means it will be the last Debian release before Python 2.7 is EOL'd. Yes, I know it's possible that 2.7 will get security releases for some time after that, but that's a much reduced commitment from upstream. Once upstream stops supporting 2.7, should we also stop supporting it? That wouldn't mean that developers on Debian can't use Python 2.7, just that they will be on their own. I know it sucks for people who can't port to Python 3, but if a decade or more isn't enough time to switch, then that's really saying they'll never switch, and how much responsibility does Debian have at that point? Python 2.7 isn't going away today, but 3 years goes by quickly and we need to decide what our policy will be when the day arrives. -Barry
