I’m getting increasingly worried about the future of Python, and those worries have been exacerbated by the new yearly release rhythm, and the lack of a stable C-API that is full enough to entice extension writers to use it.
PyPI packages and wheels are targeted to specific Python versions, which means that any project that depends on some of the larger extension packages (of which there are many, and many of which are must-have for many projects) now start lagging Python versions by years, because somewhere deep down in the dependency graph there is something that is still stuck at Python 3.8 (for example). I fully understand that 3.8 is good enough for the developers of that package, and that they have more pressing things to do than porting to 3.9 or 3.10, but it now keeps any project or package that depends on their software on 3.8 as well. And I also fully understand that some other developer who creates a new package that is essential to my application only targets the current Python release, or maybe one release back, but now if I need both the new package and and older one I’m up the well-known creek without a paddle. Building packages from source has become pretty much impossible nowadays, especially if your project is multi-platform and needs to interface to specific hardware, and you want to do the right thing with CI/CD builds and all that. On Linux/MacOS you have a chance when you try to specify all the dependencies for third party libraries and what not, but on Windows you’re dead in the water. And that is assuming you have the time and are smart enough to back port the new package to the old Python release, or the old package to the new Python release (and for the latter there’s probably a good reason why the developers haven’t done so already). Before you know it you have to install a couple of graphics card APIs for some obscure AI feature used by something you’ve never heard of, Cython for something else, and obscure vendor libraries for something else again. I think we really need to come up with some scheme whereby extension packages become more long-lived than a single Python release... -- Jack Jansen, <jack.jan...@cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma Goldman
_______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/7ALUHJBJCZGFGXHK6TTDDR3ST4YVSAWR/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
