TL;DR: How do you think we should handle Python being out of date and can you be counted in?

As we all know, Python in Fremantle is quite old (2.5). But now we come to a moment where this quite starts to mean a lot.

Most of the currently developed packages depend on features of Python >2.5. Which means the developers need to take special steps to ensure Python2.5 compatibility, which won't be taken forever.

Practically, this means Fremantle is becoming incompatible with anything Python!

For instance: building matplotlib fails because of newer code in setup.py. python-webob won't run at all. mnemosyne needs special treatment for 2.5 compatibility. Such a list could be much longer.

This issue is present in glib-dependent apps but as multiple python version can be run on the same system easily, Python might be somehow handled. And there's a lot of python software. We can do packaging manually, but we can't run code with an outdated interpreter.

What are your ideas for handling this?

And the most important question: do you want to do something with it or do you want Fremantle to lose compatibility with anything new? We don't have enough manpower to do everything for scratch but we could port existing desktop apps. Can you be counted in?

IMHO, we need to take advantage of Python2.7 brought by AapoRantalainen (and even maybe 3.x). This means rebuilding modules, which is a too huge job for one person to do. Or adding some special code to packaging which would create packages for multiple versions at once. [details would have to be discussed]

Update: the team is

• marmistrz
• malfunctioning
• Android_808
• p̶i̶c̶h̶l̶o̶
• wazrus

Update2: the tasklist: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/NuyrWHuWVn