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Quantifying the Transition from Python 2 to 3: An Empirical Study of Python Applications
Abstract
Background: Python is one of the most popular modern programming languages. In 2008 its authors introduced a new version of the language, Python 3.0, that was not backward compatible with Python 2, initiating a transitional phase for Python software developers. Aims: The study described in this paper investigates the degree to which Python software developers are making the transition from Python 2 to Python 3. Method: We have developed a Python compliance analyser, PyComply, and have assembled a large corpus of Python applications. We use PyComply to measure and quantify the degree to which Python 3 features are being used, as well as the rate and context of their adoption. Results: In fact, Python software developers are not exploiting the new features and advantages of Python 3, but rather are choosing to retain backward compatibility with Python 2. Conclusions: Python developers are confining themselves to a language subset, governed by the diminishing intersection of Python 2, which is not under development, and Python 3, which is under development with new features being introduced as the language continues to evolve.
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“A second source of shifts is programming languages, which includes adaptation across different domain-specific languages (DSLs), e.g., in robotic environments (Shin et al., 2019); and across different versions of languages, e.g., Python 2 and 3 (Malloy and Power, 2017).”
From WILDS: A Benchmark of in-the-Wild Distribution Shifts (2020) · cites this paper as Malloy and Power, 2017
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Cited by
WILDS: A Benchmark of in-the-Wild Distribution Shifts
Koh, P. W., Sagawa, S., Marklund, H., Xie, S. M., Zhang, M., Balsubramani, A., Hu, W., Yasunaga, M., Phillips, R. L., Gao, I., et al. (2020) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2012.07421 · Cited by 518
“A second source of shifts is programming languages, which includes adaption across different domain-specific languages (DSLs) (e.g., for robotic environments) (Shin et al., 2019) and different versions of languages (e.g., Python 2 and 3) (Malloy and Power, 2017).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Malloy, B. A., & Power, J. F.
- Affiliations
- Clemson University (US)
- ORCID
- Power, James F.
- Venue
- 2017 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2017-11
- Pages
- 314-323
- ISSN
- 1938-6451 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2774266864
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 1.89
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Proceedings of the ... ACM-IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement/International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (publishedVersion)
- Maynooth University ePrints and eTheses Archive (Maynooth University) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Logic, programming, and type systems
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Computational Physics and Python Applications
- Keywords
- Python 3, backward compatibility, language evolution, language subset, software development practices
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- Malloy, B. A., & Power, J. F. (2017). Quantifying the Transition from Python 2 to 3: An Empirical Study of Python Applications. 2017 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM). https://doi.org/10.1109/esem.2017.45
