[Biopython-dev] Updating Biopython requirements wording to recommend Python 3

[Christian Brueffer]

On 2015-10-06 12:55, Peter Cock wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 6:45 PM, Vincent Davis <vincent at vincentdavis.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 10:29 AM, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I expect plenty of Biopython users will still want to use Python 2.7
>>> for some time yet. Some time later on, a maintenance fork of
>>> Biopython just for Python 2.7 might make sense if there is interest
>>> in continuing that even after we drop Python 2.7 for new features.
>>
>>
>> README Proposal
>>
>> We currently recommend using Python 3.5 from http://www.python.org.
>> Python 2.7 support continues in the same code base as 3.5. In the
>> future (2016) development for Python 2.7 may be forked from the
>> main Biopython development branch and receive primarily bug fix
>> support until 2020 inline with Python 2.7 support.
>> Python 2.6 support will be declared  obsolete in the next release
>> (1.66) of Biopython and deprecated in (1.67).
>
> I'm not comfortable promising anything as far ahead as 2020 -
> even forecasting a few years ahead will be hard for many of us.
>
> But we might as well declare Python 2.6 deprecated in the
> imminent Biopython 1.66 release:
>
> https://github.com/biopython/biopython/commit/ab5915977b091275ff90de98d8d11d17488ec225
>
> That commit also replaces the old recommendation of Python 2.6
> with suggesting Python 3.5, but I do not consider the current
> wording final.
>
> Out of interest, for those of you on the biopython-dev list, what
> is your current default or main Python version/implementation?
> I'm wondering what the split is amongst our main contributors.
>
> [Our cluster is running CentOS release 6.7 (Final) which still
> has Python 2.6.6 as its default, but I tend to use my own
> copies of Python installed from source under $HOME]
>

I mostly use Anaconda Python 2.7.  No reason besides habit at this 
point; I keep my code compatible to Python 3 for the most part, and I 
think all modules I use are Python 3 compatible now.

I do work on a few CentOS 6.7 systems with Python 2.6.6 as well, but I 
don't need Biopython there.

I think deprecating Python 2.6 makes sense at this point, but given the 
number of CentOS 6.x systems out there, keeping the support for two or 
so releases would be good.

Chris