[chirp_devel] Is anyone running chirp on Python 3? (Joe Pizzi)

[Jim Lieb]

I submitted the KG-UV9D Plus driver a few years back. At that time I 
warned that Fedora Linux and others were deprecating Python 2.7. This 
has been a self inflicted cliff that the Python community has been 
looking at for well over 10 years as I warned back then. That means that 
at some point whatever 2.x people are using will no longer work and no 
one will look at the issues. So this is not news.

I don't know what the lead developers are planning/thinking but I have 
heard rumors that a packaging (flatpak/appimage/snap) that included the 
2.7 suite would do just fine. Well, it won't. Something outside that 
sandbox will change. Microsoft can do it anytime. Apple does it all the 
time. Linux no longer cares.

I know the GUI change is painful. Neither GUI option Python offers warms 
my heart but I do know that what is running now for CHIRP is dead.

I have been down this road many times over the decades since I first 
started in Open Source (long before python even existed) and it is clear 
that either the project get serious about the work, is visible to the 
community about its work, or it dies. It will join Common Desktop, 
Algol, and Netscape in the dustbin. There is a lot of python 2 code that 
is just dead because the maintainers simply did nothing.

If the current maintainers are not responsive, I suggest a group just 
fork the project and get on with it. And I second the motion on moving 
from Hg to git.

p.s. I fairness to the author, this is a hard choice. Python has never 
been on my list of ecosystems that I'd spend a lot of time in. The 
Python community has made more that a few stumbles and blunders since 
the beginning. All I have ever been able to say for it was that it was 
better than Perl... And the 2->3 fiasco has been a bumble that has made 
whole communities move to GO or other technologies with less penchant 
for seeking out potholes to fall into. I have only written new code/apps 
for demo or reference implementations, e.g. DBus clients.

Good luck.

-- 
Jim Lieb, KB6QT

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