Comment by japhyr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by japhyr | Hacker News Reader

> We will maintain python2, python3 and python@3 aliases.

Is the python3 alias likely to be present indefinitely?

I work with beginners a lot, so I look for a simple installation with as few steps as possible. I like that someone who hasn't set up their mac for development can run 'brew install python3', and then use the python3 command to work with the latest version. They don't have to modify their PATH to get started, and as long as they use python3 to run programs and configure a text editor, they don't have to think much about the difference between their Python 3 installation and the system Python.

I understand that 'brew install python' will now install Python 3, which is great. But that does mean you have to modify your PATH to have the python command use the homebrew-installed Python 3 interpreter, right?

Is it reasonable to continue to recommend that beginners use the 'brew install python3' command?

> Is it reasonable to continue to recommend that beginners use the 'brew install python3' command?

Yes. I cannot promise it'll be around forever (as I can't promise anything forever) but it remains reasonable to recommend that to beginners.

Thanks, that's really helpful. And thank you as well for providing something that's helpful to professionals and beginners alike!

I'm also a bit surprised because per PEP-394, the "python" binary will point to python2 for the foreseeable future.

PEP 394 is not set in stone. There have been occasional discussions on amending it, e.g [1]

[1] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/linux-sig/2017-July/000029...

I probably should have linked to the PEP in my comment, because you're right, it says right in the PEP it can change in the future. I would just expect the PEP to change before package managers.

I would think it would be confusing to install a package called "python" and have to run a binary called "python3" while a package called "python@2" installs a "python" binary. But anyone learning Python in the foreseeable future will have to deal with 2v3, anyway. Personally, I'm more likely to reach for Homebrew to install Python3 since macOS ships with 2.7. However, if macOS does ship Python3 I'll probably reach for Homebrew for Python 2.7.

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