Ask HN: What are the very best reasons to develop in python3 over python2?

3 points by _ix 9y ago ↗ HN

I just got a new job in a relatively young department inside a Fortune 500. I was delighted to learn that they've been automating their manual processes with python, but surprised that all development has been exclusively python2 since the department's inception 3 years ago.

As for me, I can't imagine python2 is viable due to the impending deadline, but I was unaware of how controversial this was until only recently. I've been happily writing python3 for the past 2 years. I doubt that I've been using the best new features of the language or that I could articulate a compelling argument for python3 without some help.

So, how about it? Can I get some input to essentially create a pitch deck for python3?

2 comments

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a3n 9y ago ↗

Here's a one-slide deck: Python 2 is End of Life in 2020. No improvements, no bug/security fixes. It will be a dead parrot. http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0373/

So it depends on how long you want python to be a factor in your shop, and how long you want to be able to recruit python programmers willing to work there.

It shouldn't be surprising to find a python 2 shop, even if their python focus started within recent years. The people who started it have a good chance of having used python 2 for a long time.

sevensor 9y ago ↗

I'd feel out your colleagues on the subject before pushing Python 3. It's a better language, but people who are still using Python 2 this late in the transition may be doing so because they have very strong feelings on the subject. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.