[Biopython] When to drop Python 3.6 support?

[Peter Cock]

Good - like João I use conda on our Linux cluster, and a Mac desktop.
It has freed me from worrying about the operating system provided
Python (which can often be quite old).

I'd suggest we announce that Biopython 1.79 is intended to be the final
release to support Python 3.6, and include a warning about this in the
setup.py when used on Python 3.6 (as we have done in the past).

Peter

On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 4:58 PM Ivan Gregoretti <ivangreg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Peter.
>
> Just to agree with you. I do not know of any major linux distribution
> shipping with 3.6 or older.
>
> People seem to be developing for Python 3.7 and above these days.
>
> My vote goes to dropping 3.6 and devoting resources to 3.7 and above.
>
> Ivan
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 4:57 AM Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > We'll probably want to make the Biopython 1.79 release in the next
> > month or so, which would be before Python 3.9 is officially released.
> > If it all seems to work, we could add a Python 3.9 wheel for Biopython 1.79
> > later, otherwise we'd aim to officially support it in our subsequent release.
> >
> > That would leave us targeting Python 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9, which starts
> > to be a burden for continuous integration testing.
> >
> > 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
> > to https://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.
> >
> > I note that PyPy currently implements Python 3.6.9, but they already have
> > Python 3.7 support in beta:
> > https://foss.heptapod.net/pypy/pypy/-/wikis/py3.7%20status
> >
> > There are a few new features in Python 3.7 which may be of interest,
> > https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0537/#features-for-3-7 - perhaps
> > the new Data Classes in particular? Nothing there currently strikes me
> > as a strong reason to drop Python 3.6 early.
> >
> > Any thoughts, comments, or use cases for Python 3.6?
> >
> > Peter
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