Python V2 vs Python V3

Python is a high-level programming language. It is mainly known for its easy syntaxes, enabling readability with its notable use of significant whitespaces. The first version of Python came into production in 1991 in Netherland.

Nowadays, there are 2 versions of Python which are in production. Python v2.0 and Python v3.0.

Python V2.0

The first version of Python V2.0 came into production in the early 2000s. Python V2.0 made the development process relaxed than previous versions. It executed technical details of the Python Enhancement Proposal. Python v2.0 is going to be obsolete after the year 2020. Most of the companies are still using Python v2.0 due to their already existing legacy applications.

Python V3.0

Python released the first V3.0 in December 2008 as Python v3.0. The purpose of releasing v3 was to fix bugs in Python V2.0 releases. Moreover, the new version fixes bugs, but it entirely changed python as a language. The nature of changes in Python v3.0 was not compatible with Python v2. Some features of Python V3 are backward-incompatible. They were inverted back in Python 2.x versions to make the migration easy in Python V3. Also, the updates changed the language to make it able to support future versions as well. The primary objective of this release was to reduce redundancy and make it easier for the new programmers.

Key Difference

Syntax

Python V3.0 syntax is easier to understand, whereas in V2.0 it is comparatively difficult.

Libraries

Many Libraries created for Python V2.0 are not forward compatible as newly creating libraries restricts its use in Python V3.0.

ASCII & Unicode

Strings are stored in ASCII by default in V2.0, but for Python V3.0, Text Strings are Unicode by default. Unicode is more adaptable than ASCII as it can store Roman Letters, Numerals, and Symbols.

Global Variables

Python V3.0 value of variables never variates, whereas in Python V2.0 value of the global variable changes if used inside for-loop.

Ordering Comparisons

Python V2.0 rules of ordering comparisons are tricky. Whereas, in Python V3.0, it is more straightforward.

Print Function

The most notable change in Python is the Print Function. In Python v2, the keyword was; print “-“ whereas It is print() in Python v3.0.

Python v2: Print "Hello World."

Python v3: Print ("Hello World")

Xrange() Function

Xrange() of Python V2.0 does not exist in Python V3.0. This function returns the generator object that may use to display variables only by looping. Whereas; it offers range() to perform iterations.

Usability

Python v2.7 has been the most popular version for over a decade, still used in some organizations. Since companies are migrating towards Python v3, the developer can still learn v2.7 and utilize v3.0 as minor alterations in both versions.

Division

In python v2, the division of two integers always returns an integer. However, in python v3, the division of the exact two integers returns afloat.

Backward compatibility

The users can choose to port version 2 with python v3. However, it is not recommended as it is not reliable. While python v2 does not support python v3, hence no backward compatibility.

Exceptions

Python3 requires its users to enclose the exceptions in the notations, while python3 requires them to enclose these exceptions in the parentheses.

Ease of Learning

Python v3 is comparatively easy to learn for beginners and other language developers.

Community Support

Python v3 has a large developers community to provide support in comparison with Python v3.

Organization Platform Shift: Python v2 to Python v3

Instagram

Instagram, in 2017, migrated from Python 2.7 to Python 3.0. As Python is in ASCII, it is not a typed language, but Python v3.5 supports typing, removing conflicts during development.

Facebook

Facebook is currently in the phase of upgrading its search engines and handlers from V2.0 to Python 3.4.

For beginners, starting with Python 3 is a great way to learn to program quickly. It’s an intuitive language, and many famous companies like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify are using it!

Future of Python v2

The developers of python v2 have officially announced the end of this version with its final release, i.e., python v2.7.18. Therefore, the python developers will be getting any new releases, updates, fixes, and bug reports of this particular version in the future. Moreover, the python software foundation recommends its users switch to python v3 as soon as possible. Due to this, there is significant pressure on the organisations to shift to the new version. Most importantly, the large organisations with their codebase in python v2 have to strategise their shift to upgrade the projects.

Future of Python v3

Python v3 is python’s newer version with numerous updates, making it a priority version for python developers. Moreover, python 3 supports modern IT technologies such as data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, due to which the developers working in these fields mainly use python v3. The libraries and the packages the data scientists and other developers were using, such as tensorFlow, stopped their support for the python v2. So, it is also a clear motive for the machine learning and data science developers to shift to python v3. Additionally, as all the world-class projects in these fields are being done in the python v3 version and after python v2’s expiration, its adoption is the clear direction for all the big and small organisations. Finally, python v3 provides forward compatibility, due to which it will be easier for its developers to switch to the upcoming versions.

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