Python 3.4 Review and Default ...

[mmcky]

Review quant-econ.net and quantecon.org for python 3.4 compatibility.

It is getting close to move to python 3.4 as a default. I don't think we are quite there yet though (i.e. fabric is not yet python3 compatible - but it looks like it is getting close). Many of our other dependancies have moved up to python3.4 including statsmodels.

Also - Continuum default installer is currently python2.7 so for new users it is probably still the best option.

[mmcky]

I have just noticed that the Anaconda download page has been updated. Both py27 and py34 are now promoted side by side. The switch to python 3.4 is pretty close.

https://www.continuum.io/downloads

[jstac]

Hooray.

What are the issues to discuss here? fabric is only used for compiling the website, which is kind of orthogonal to this library...

[sglyon]

@mmcky I don't see what changed? Instead of having the 3.4 link in a separate "tab" (within the page) it is now side by side?

[davidrpugh]

@mmcky

Just to make sure I understand. We are considering moving to python3.4 and no longer support python2.7?

[mmcky]

@davidrpugh et al. I think we should still support both for the immediate future (as we currently do) given it isn't that difficult. However as time roles on - we shouldn't be shy to use Python 3 as a baseline if dependancies start supporting new features in Python 3 only etc.

We currently recommend Python 2.7 in the lecture series - as that was the "default" anaconda option for downloading from continuum. I was mainly commenting above that anaconda seems to be moving towards more equal citizens for both versions - making Python 3.4 more directly visible.

Making Python 3.4 the default probably impacts quant-econ.net more to make sure the code snippets follow correct print syntax etc.

For the package - It will however become important for things like: PEP 465 http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0465/#abstract. It is listed for inclusion in Python 3.5 but not sure if it will be back ported to Python 2.7.#.

[mmcky]

With the recent release of python 3.5 the use of @ for matrix multiplication will be used a lot in new code. We need to update our Travis-CI environment and move towards 3.5 as a default.

[davidrpugh]

Agreed. +1

[mmcky]

The migration to python 3.5 has now occurred.
The current package supports Python 2.7 but as code get's added using python3.5 syntax we will only support python 3.5. Travis CI has been updated to check the package in a python 3.5 environment.