So I started learning Python.
When lots of people on the Intertubes said that I should not use 3.1 because there wasn't as much module support I made a 'pssh' noise, rolled my eyes and promptly installed 3.1. My reasoning ran thus:
- Lots of people are stupid [1]
- 3.1 is a larger number than 2.6
- It was likely to take me so long to learn the language to any useful degree that 3.1 usage would have stepped up by then
I was unaware, however, of the full magnitude of the problem. Allow me to illustrate using the medium of Google Image Search:
Python 3.1
Python 2.6
I started off with Hello World, then decided that the next best step was steganography. It's something I've always been interested in, and it's got file IO in there, some bit-twisting, probably hookups to a couple of other libraries and plenty of room to grow - a good starter project.
First order of the day: start looking for PNG libraries. Plenty of options, none of which work with 3.1. Shame, but OK. I know nothing about PNG, so it's time to look up the spec. Before too long I'm loading chunks, learning to love struct, having to implement LZ77. Wait, what? At this point I made a face like this - >: | - expunged 3.1, installed 2.6 and downloaded pypng.
You could argue that I should be lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness - that I should stop whining and start porting code. In most cases I'm willing to get down and dirty. I've written loaders in my time, but I don't start to learn a high-level language so I can trawl through file format specs, especially when there's a perfectly servicably library 0.5 of a release over thataway.
In case you need any more convincing that no-one gives a crap about 3.1 then let's have a look at their online documentation:
2.6: http://docs.python.org/library/io.html
3.1: http://docs.python.org/3.1/library/io.html
I see someone's in a subdirectory. No illusions about who's the ginger stepchild in that family.
So there's some more anecdotal evidence to add to the pile. I beseech you, dear reader: if you're about to install Python, install 2.6.