Summary
Your library supports only Python 2, - but your users keep nagging you about Python 3 support?
As Python 3 gets adopted more and more, users ask for Python 3 support in existing libraries for Python 2. Although there are several approaches, this talk focuses on using the very same code for a Python 2 and a Python 3 version.
The talk discusses the main problems when supporting Python 3 and best practices to apply for compatibility with Python 2 and 3.
Description
Your library supports only Python 2, - but your users keep nagging you about Python 3 support?
As Python 3 gets adopted more and more, users ask for Python 3 support in existing libraries for Python 2. This talk mentions some approaches for giving users a Python 3 version, but will quickly focus on using the very same code for a Python 2 and a Python 3 version.
This is much easier if you require Python 2.6 and up, and yet a bit easier if you require Python 3.3 as the minimum Python 3 version.
The talk discusses main problems when supporting Python 3 (some are easily solved):
- print is a function.
- More Python APIs return iterators that used to return lists.
- There's now a clear distinction between bytes and unicode (text) strings.
- Files are opened as text by default, requiring an encoding to apply on reading and writing.
The talk also explains some best practices:
- Start with a good automatic test coverage.
- Deal with many automatic conversions with a one-time 2to3 run.
- Think about how your library should handle bytes and unicode strings. (Rule of thumb: Decode bytes as early as possible; encode unicode text as late as possible.)
- Should you break compatibility with your existing Python 2 API? (Yes, if there's no other way to design a sane API for Python 2 and 3. If you do it, raise the first part of the version number.)
- Try to keep code that's different for Python 2 and 3 minimal. Put code that needs to be different for Python 2 and 3 into a compat module. Or use third-party libraries like six or future.
Finally, the talk will mention some helpful resources on the web.