Ask HN: any Googlers here can explain why no Python 3? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: any Googlers here can explain why no Python 3?

14 pointsandrewstuart5 comments

None of Google's SDKs (i.e. for Compute Engine) support Python 3.

Are there any Googlers here on HN who can give insight as to why?

How far into the future do we have to go till Google SDKs provide Python 3 support?

Not employed at google, but I'm sure I'm in a similar situation in terms of deciding whether and when to port. There are a lot us of who think either:

1.) python3 will die (long live python 2.x)

2.) python3 will become easier to port to

If neither of those happen, python itself will probably die in the long term, so I'm pretty confident one or the other will come to be.

I see Python 2 as in the same category as OS/2, Amiga and DOS. There are plenty of enthusiasts who maintain their love for old technology for nostalgic reasons but the actual technology world has moved on. This won't stop members of "Team OS/2" steadfastly trying to convince us for years to come that it's actually the best OS out there. They'll continue to use OS/2 and wish the world was different and locked in the past - good luck to em. Here's their website - http://teamos2.com/ - apparently it's powered by a 586 processor.

It doesn't matter if OS/2 the best OS out there - it's dead. Same with Python 2 - who gives a rats whether it is good, better or best, it's dead technology.

Any individual person of company that has internal Python systems is of course fully entitled to decide if it wants to stick with Python 2 or move to Python 3.

On the other hand, companies that are providing SDK's or libraries to interface to their systems have an absolute obligation to provide their code in Python 2 and 3.

Dogmatically sticking to Python 2 is entirely valid for internal systems, but what the heck is the point of providing interfacing code/SDKs/libraries if it does not interface? Google is welcome to keep all its internal systems on Python 2, but all its SDKs should support Python 3. And all Google's public facing developer tools should support Python 3 - nothing else makes sense.

In terms of porting, plenty of people seem to have done it - here's the list: http://python3wos.appspot.com/

> On the other hand, companies that are providing SDK's or libraries to interface to their systems have an absolute obligation to provide their code in Python 2 and 3.

Why did you state this as if it were a self-evident fact? There are seemingly clear reasons why this belief is completely absurd.

+1. Why would you spend time creating examples for particular languages unless the demand is there to justify the time creating them.

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