In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> There will be a `2to3.py` program coming with Python 2.6 that tries to > convert most changes automatically. You may have to change the 2.6 code > in a way that makes the automatic conversion possible but it is a > important goal for the Python developers to make the transition as smooth > as possible as far as I can tell. People who have been using good software engineering practices like writing lots of automated tests, will have some confidence that the conversion went well. People who haven't written any tests will probably be afraid of any big changes to the environment (and rightfully so). But, to answer the OP's question, to wit, "If I continue in Python 2.5.x, am I making a mistake?", I would say not. For somebody learning a new language, what you seek is stability. You want everything to be well documented, and to work as documented. You want a large community of people who already know what you are learning, and are able to help. Likewise, you want a good selection of books to provide tutorial and reference help. And a good set of well-tested tools and add-on modules. You'll get all those from Python 2.5. If you go with 3.0, you'll be on the bleeding edge. My advice is to stay with what's stable today and come back and look at 3.0 in a year or so when you know what you're doing better, and the ecosystem has caught up with code. And, write those automated tests, so when the time does come to switch, you can do so with confidence :-)
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