
Python in production engineering - samber
https://code.facebook.com/posts/1040181199381023/python-in-production-engineering/
======
sandGorgon
Millions of lines of Python code in production at Facebook. 5% of it is
Python3.

Interesting.

I wonder if there are any interesting learnings around Unicode handling in
Python 2 at this scale and use cases. I'm fairly surprised that someone like
Facebook wouldn't have a Unicode monkeypatch for Python 2.

~~~
rtpg
While a loooot of libraries are Python 3 compatible now, There are holdouts
among python libraries with heavy C FFI elements. So if you have just one of
those in your stack, it becomes really hard to use Python 3.

Though honestly, I feel like Facebook could, you know, pay people to port the
needed projects to Python 3.

~~~
rebootthesystem
> So if you have just one of those in your stack, it becomes really hard to
> use Python 3.

That, exactly that, is the mess that was created when Python 3 was released as
it was.

When facing a new project you don't always know exactly what libraries you'll
need to tap into. And so, from both a business and technical perspective, the
correct decision is to go for the version that will not shaft you half way
during development. And that's 2.7.x.

I'm sure they folks behind Python are very smart but they have shown to not
have a solid understanding of how business works. Unfortunate because the
impasse it has created is almost impossible to fix.

~~~
xapata
Though some projects are still written in COBOL, sometimes we get to pick
better technology. It takes time. Python has been around for more than 25
years. They can plan for the future.

