Re: Bootstrap with old Python

[Darshit Shah]

On 8/21/20 10:57 AM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 4:45 AM Bruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org> wrote:
> > Hi Jeffrey,
> >
> > > I'm testing Wget2. I believe it uses Gnulib from master.
> > >
> > > Older Python does not respond to 'python --version':
> > >
> > > Unknown option: --
> > > usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | file | -] [arg] ...
> > > Try `python -h' for more information.
> > > ./bootstrap: Error: 'python' not found
> > >
> > > 'python -V' produces expected error messages, but it requires a patch
> > > of bootstrap:
> > >
> > > ./bootstrap: Error: 'python' version == Python 2.3.4 is too old
> > > ./bootstrap:        'python' version >= 2 is required
> > > ./bootstrap: Please install the prerequisite programs
> >
> > I don't think there are many users in the same situation than you.
> > Reason: Most distros have been shipping Python 2.7.x (minimum) for a
> > long time [1].
> >
> > Also, Python 3 can be assumed from next year on, since Python 2 is
> > end-of-life this year [2].
>
> I don't think so. Fiat is a lazy developer practice, and it does not
> reflect real life. For example Microsoft claims Windows 7 is dead but
> it still has 28% market share.
I would very much disagree. Python 2.x has been in a deprecated state 
for years now. Not upgrading your systems with ample warning given is on 
the system maintainer. We do tend to provide long term backwards 
compatibility, but only in release versions. Tools used by the 
developers need to drop support for ancient tooling when possible purely 
to keep complexity low.

> > Additionally, 'bootstrap' is a development tool. Developers tend
> > to have newer tools installed than production systems have.
>
> Yeah, I wish Tim would build a release tarball so we don't have to do
> the git submodule thing.

We can work on that soon. Wget2 _is_ technically still alpha software. 
And with both Tim and me busy with real life, there isn't so much time 
available for this. Contributions are very welcome :)

Although, if you'd like to continue this discussion, please move it to 
bug-wget@gnu.org
> Jeff