Change default `python` command to use Python 3

Glitch Feature Ideas
1

Python 2.7 has been officially end-of-life for almost 9 months now. Could we please get the base image updated so that the python command points to Python 3, instead of 2? Having to remember to always use python3 and pip3 is getting frustrating.

Thank you,
Scott

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2

I would vote, but I have ran out :frowning:

3

I hope Glitch won’t deviate from the Linux distro it uses in doing this. It wouldn’t make my life much harder if they did. I use Python 3 myself, and I wouldn’t mind saving a keystroke here and there. But it seems like such a small, vanity gain that I’d rather they prioritize least-astonishment and conformance with more broadly published recommendations, such as PEP 394.

Scott, I feel for you that you have to deal with this frustration. Whatever environment you’re coming from that taught its users to use python for Python 3, I feel like it’s one of these groups that chose vanity over least-astonishment and now you’re left to deal with the consequences. But I don’t want Glitch to become one of those groups and do this to its users as well.

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4

I do see what you are saying, but at this point, python devs should seriously consider moving to Python3 as Python2 is very outdated and no longer updated.

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5

wow I feel old, when I started learning to code the first language I saw was Python 2 on a RaspbPi.

6

Does anybody remember turtle? The days…

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7

Turtle was a plot point in a spy tv show once :joy:

8

import turtle as t

9

for a moment I freaked and thought this was the new way of importing stuff in node. stupid me.
Is Patty the same as Turtle?

10

Probably.

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11

I take your point, wh0, but:

  1. I made the choice myself to change python to point to Python 3 as we migrated our codebase, because I wanted to keep using the same command. It wouldn’t surprise me if many folks did the same.
  2. The most recent version of PEP 394 allows for python to point to either version.
  3. In my opinion, starting any new project with Python 2 should be strongly discouraged at this point in time.
2 Likes
12

oh neat, I hadn’t seen that

Just to be extra cautious, because this is a public forum: people reading this shouldn’t take Scott’s inclusion of this quoted statement in the above as a claim that I recommend for people to start new projects with Python 2.

13

You can do
alias python='python3'
in your bashrc or .env but not sure if that runs on project loading

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14

Just to be extra cautious, because this is a public forum: people reading this shouldn’t take Scott’s inclusion of this quoted statement in the above as a claim that I recommend for people to start new projects with Python 2.

Sorry, wh0, didn’t mean to imply that. I just meant that I think it’s potentially an unintended consequence of leaving the default python as-is, pointing to 2.

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15

Anyone remember Turtle?

Yep, only bit of python they teach at my school.

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16

but this could break many glitch projects pretty quickly that use python 2

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17

They should try using the 2to3 tool, it converts python2 code to python3

18

Detect when they are using python2 and don’t update or send an email or something. ‘some people still use it’ isn’t really a good excuse for continuing to use old, end of life and possibly vulnerable software. That’s like Microsoft continuing to support Windows ME because some people still use it.

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19

There are projects that people use in tutorials so people can see a demo that will break and people will go commenting on the original authors post to fix the apps.
Also sometimes node_modules rely on the fact python=python 2, if there may or may not be a mechanisim to check versions. If there is, there won’t be a good way to find where python2 is