[Biopython] Dropping Python 3.5 support?

[Peter Cock]

If you mean we should aim to release Biopython 1.76 as the final release with
Python 2.7 support in mid/late December 2019 (rather than early January 2020
which is what I was thinking), I wouldn't object.

Any thoughts on Python 3.5 support?

Peter

On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 2:59 PM Michiel de Hoon <mjldehoon at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >To start the conversation going, I would like to suggest we drop Python 3.5
> support at the same time that we drop Python 2.7 (after our first release in
> 2020).
>
> Let's drop Python 2.7 already in our first release in 2020, so that all releases from 2020 are Python3 only.
>
> Best,
> -Michiel
>
>
> On Monday, November 18, 2019, 10:33:55 PM GMT+9, Peter Cock <p.j.a.cock at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Biopythoneers,
>
> We have already announced that we are dropping Python 2.7 support in
> early 2020, which will leave us supporting Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8.
>
> Both Python 3.5 and 3.6 are no longer getting bug fixes, only security
> fixes though to September 2020 and December 2021 respectively
> (based on a five year life cycle):
>
> https://devguide.python.org/#status-of-python-branches
>
> As usual, the motivation is both reducing the number of combinations we
> must test on, and being able to take advantage of language improvements.
> In this case we would be able to assume sorted dictionaries (a language
> feature guaranteed in Python 3.7 onwards, but actually implemented in
> C Python 3.6 and PyPy so effectively available in Python 3.6 onwards).
>
> In similar past discussion the only real obstacle to dropping support for
> older Python versions has been when a widely used Linux system had
> it as the default system Python - although nowadays with conda etc it
> is very easy to ignore that in favour of a user-specific Python setup.
>
> Are any of our mailing list subscribers still using Python 3.5? If so,
> would having to update be a major hurdle?
>
> To start the conversation going, I would like to suggest we drop Python 3.5
> support at the same time that we drop Python 2.7 (after our first release in
> 2020).
>
> Peter
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