Which version

[Don]

Hi,

I'm a reasonably experienced in other languages and have just decided to
get my feet wet with Python. But I'm using FC6 which has v2.4.4 installed,
is this good enough to start out with or am I likely to encounter bugs that
have been fixed in later versions.

Don

[Eric Wertman]

Re: Which version

I'm a reasonably experienced in other languages and have just decided to

get my feet wet with Python. But I'm using FC6 which has v2.4.4 installed,
is this good enough to start out with or am I likely to encounter bugs that
have been fixed in later versions.

I'm sure there will be other opinions. I try to use the stock distro
version whenever possible, just because it makes administration easier
and you have some reasonable guess as to where your code will work if
you move it. I use 2.4 regularly, and haven't come across many things
that the 2.5 series would make behave differently. The subprocess
module is one though, and I recall a few datetime routines that were
2.5 only that I wished I could use.

If you aren't married to you linux distro, you might switch to
ubuntu... I believe they package the 2.5 series. IMO it's not wrong
to compile a new one alongside the stock installation, but you could
run into potentially confusing issues later about which one exactly
you are using, installing modules for, etc. Easy to avoid if you know
what you are doing, but a potential pitfall for a beginner.

Eric

[Fredrik Lundh]

Re: Which version

Don wrote:

I'm a reasonably experienced in other languages and have just decided to
get my feet wet with Python. But I'm using FC6 which has v2.4.4 installed,
is this good enough to start out with or am I likely to encounter bugs that
have been fixed in later versions.

Python 2.4 is definitely good enough to start with.

The bugs you'll find in released versions are usually pretty obscure;
I've been using Python since release 1.1 or so, and I cannot remember
ever having to upgrade due to a critical bug in the version I was using.

</F>

[Fredrik Lundh]

Re: Which version

Eric Wertman wrote:

The subprocess module is one though

footnote: subprocess works on older versions too, and can be trivially
installed along with your application under Python 2.2 and 2.3.

binary builds for Windows are available here:

http://effbot.org/downloads/#subprocess

</F>

[Don]

Re: Which version

Eric,Fredrik,

Many thanks for your prompt advice, it was a 'better safe than sorry' type
of question.

Don