Re: [gentoo-dev] Migrate away from python-2 or not

[Eddie Chapman <eddie@ehuk.net>]

On 24/11/2019 12:15, Benda Xu wrote:
> Given the python-2 countdown deadline being 2020-01-01, a month away,
> shall we get rid of python-2?


> If the answer is no, to avoid holding back new versions having only
> python3, such as bug 671796 for dev-python/matplotlib bump, old versions
> with python_targets_python2_7 and new versions without should be
> co-installable into different SLOTs.

Rather than slots, perhaps a separate directory hierarchy containing 
only python2 + deps (/opt/python2 ?) i.e. it's just a --prefix change

It's ugly I know but the advantage is the majority of installations with 
python3 don't see any change and they'll have a clean python3 only /usr. 
Anyone who wants/needs python2 will be happy to put up with the ugliness 
and pull all the duplicate deps in (yes, have duplicate set of ebuilds 
for python2 only deps - dev-python2/* - forked off and with the 
understanding that no new features, this is a semi-temporary situation 
until python2 can finally die properly). Also, I think it helps everyone 
psychologically to have a very visible separation.

Not being a dev and with my lack of a deep understanding of python 
there's probably an big reason this idea is a non-starter, so just 
throwing it out there.