[Biopython] When to drop Python 3.6 support?

[Téletchéa Stéphane]

Le 10/11/2020 à 10:50, Peter Cock a écrit :
> I note that Python 3.6 has now been dropped from NumPy 1.20. It would be
> good to start preparing to drop Python 3.6 support in Biopython. According
> tohttps://www.python.org/downloads/  and also PEP494, Python will end
> support for Python 3.6 in December 2021, about a year away.
>
> Are there any major platforms (e.g. popular Linux distributions) where the
> default is Python 3.6 where our users might be inconvenienced? Personally
> I switched to using conda (with conda-forge and bioconda) a while back, and
> their default Python is quite up to date - so I don't usually worry about the
> system provided Python anymore.
Hi all,

Ubuntu for one, in its 18.04 LTS (10 years, up to April 2028) is still 
using python 3.6(.9)
as its official python version, and will probably default to this one 
for "a moment":
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Python/Python36Transition

Out of numpy, is there any requirements in biopython "forcing" this 
migration?

As I see it for now, Python3 is still evolving rapidly, so getting "the 
latest one"
may not seem a good idea if you want to break the community's work :-/

And for conda, except if you are a Windows user, I don't get the point 
of using
a whole new system in a directory (taking more space than the original 
one...)
since when you want to combine multiple large collection software
(django + apache + rdkit + biopython in my case) conda is certainly not 
the easiest
to use (better use docker in this situation).

My 0.02 cents/pennies :-)

Stéphane


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