Picking a Python Version: A Manifesto

Description

This report guides you through the implicit decision tree of choosing what Python version, implementation, and distribution is best suited for you. It weighs and discusses the merits of each of these choices, and briefly discusses the reasons each option exists. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Python Versions The (Small) Break Moving Forward Unix-Like Systems Python 3 on Fedora and Red Hat Python 3 on Ubuntu Python 3 Uptake Downloads from python.org Downloads from the Python Package Index A 2013/2014 Survey Is It Enough? Python 3.5 Release Schedule Chapter 2. Porting 2to3 six.py Python-Future Library Support Chapter 3. Advantages of Python 3.x Unicode Handling The Greatly Improved Email and Mailbox Modules The concurrent.futures Module Coroutine Support and yield from The asyncio Module Views and Iterators Everywhere Function Annotations Other Things super() with No Arguments The str.format() Mini-Language The argparse Module The itertools Module Keeps Getting Better pip Everywhere Chapter 4. Other Implementations PyPy PyPy-STM Jython IronPython Cython Numba Chapter 5. Python Distributions Continuum Analytics’ Anaconda Enthought’s Canopy ActiveState’s ActivePython