[chirp_devel] FYI: Python 2 Deprecation

[Jim Lieb]

Hi,
I'm currently working on the Wouxun KG-UV9D Plus driver. I was also an open source developer, 
particularly Linux and pNFS before I retired and I'm still connected to the community.

I'm on the Fedora Linux development distribution listserv and I received a devel list digest 
yesterday containing the following:

<quote>
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2018 16:41:02 -0400
From: Ben Cotton <bcotton at redhat.com>
Subject: Fedora 30 System-Wide Change proposal: Mass Python 2 Package
        Removal
To: devel at lists.fedoraproject.org,
        devel-announce at lists.fedoraproject.org
Message-ID:
        <CA+voJeVEOTQsq344WgzGoMMO7b2MhXBrHLwB8p3N_6+pJzEjEg at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
</quote>

The wiki page is the contents of the digest message.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Mass_Python_2_Package_Removal

This proposed action is targeted for Fedora 30. For those unfamiliar with the distribution, we are 
currently at F28, released a few months ago. F29 will come out in mid-late Fall '18 (more or less) 
and F30 will come out in late Spring '19. As a proposal at this stage, it still needs to be approved 
by the team but given the source of the proposal and what the team has been discussing for the 
last few cycles, this is more than a probable action. Red Hat has already expended a lot of effort 
to get everything it maintains (a large part of its infrastructure) moved to Python3 and is 
motivated to reduce its technical debt.

What this means to Chirp is that its base interpreter infrastructure will no longer be available a 
year from now.

This train has been heading for end-of-track for a good while and now there is a serious date. I 
would not be surprised if other distributions such as Ubuntu will be doing the same given the 
same resource constraints. In addition, with the shakeup in the Python community with the 
resignation of Guido, there is not going to be a lot of mindshare/commitment to maintaining the 
old code base. They have already posted an EOL (Jan 1, 2020) for Python 2.x support.

The Linux distribution community is very conservative about deprecating old technologies but 
they are also very cautious about getting out on a limb supporting technologies/versions that 
upstream has abandoned.

In terms of distribution support, this means that Chirp needs to move to Python3 very soon. The 
pipeline for submitting packaging for Fedora 30 will close in about 6 months because F30 has 
code freeze milestones for packages. See:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/30/Schedule

for details. I have also worked for other distributions (Ubuntu) and they do the same thing. For 
those on other platforms such as Windows or OX/X, the situation may be even more at risk.

Jim KB6QT
-- 
Jim Lieb

Mobile: 831-295-9317
GPG Key: 79BB52C7BD0530F5

"If ease of use was the only requirement, we would all be riding tricycles"
- Douglas Engelbart 1925–2013
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