Hello all, I recently started using Python, and I must say I like it. Both the language and libraries available for it.
Background: I have written an application which I use to keep track of my personal economy. I wrote it in Java because I wanted to learn the language for a course in programming at my university. Now that I have acquired an interrest in Python I was thinking about porting my program to Python. But then it occured to me.. I started writing my program in Java pre-1.5. Then came 1.5, I upgraded, and my program would still compile and run, though I did get three warnings. The language had changed a little bit; I had to assign a type to three arrays. That wasn't so bad. However, when I look at the various Python modules/libraries, I see that there are several versions of them, for different versions of python. I've seen everything from "for python 1.5" up to "for python 2.4" with all versions in between. This scares me a little bit. I assume that the reason for the different versions is because of new language features? Is Python showing any signs of "stabilizing"? (Yes, I know there are pros to an evolving language). Will there ever be a time when a new major version of python won't mean getting new versions of the modules? For my economy program, I used DB2 as a database backend. I can be reasonable sure that there will always be a DB2 API for Java. However, I have found a DB2 module for Python, but I don't even know if it works with Python 2.4, and if I compile and use it, I can't be sure it'll work with the next python release, as far as I can tell. I'd like to ask seasoned Python developers: - Are you comfortable in upgrading to the latest version of Python, or are you worried about what you have to fix in your existing programs? - Put aside any unconditional love for Python for a second, and be honest: Have you ever run into version related problems? - Have you ever relied on a module, upgraded python version for some new important feature, but realized that the module you rely on hasn't been updated yet? If not, do you consider a possibility? - Do the module developers, in general, keep up with the development versions of python, so you can expect to find newly updated modules as new versions of python hits the streets? - Did you have similar worries to mine when you started working with Python? Please be honest.. It's better that I find out any potential problems now, than rant about them in six months. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to answer. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
