[makecheck]

It’s funny, after Mojave was released recently I thought it might finally have a python3 installed, even if it’s not the default. Nope, still Python 2.7.

This is good for me since I deployed a Python-dependent app under the assumption that the system Python would be stable and reliable. It allows relatively complex things to be achieved with a tiny download package.

I’ve been prepared to adopt Python 3 for awhile but it just isn’t necessary when using system defaults.

[Longhanks]

It'll be very interesting to see what happens with the next macOS when Python 2 will be EOL (which is roughly 3 months after its release). The upgrade to Python 3 is long overdue.

[CJefferson]

Python being EOL sounds scary but actually won't matter to Apple. They already apply custom patches, they can carry on running python 2.7 forever, with minor bug fixes where really required.

[guitarbill]

> they can carry on running python 2.7 forever

would they do this? does anything macOS internal depend on python 2.7?

[varenc]

the `xattr` terminal command relies on the system installed Python, though this seems to be the only example.

If you look at the source in `/usr/bin/xattr` it does some work to deal with different versions of Python. All the work ultimately gets handled by the xattr module preinstalled with the system Python. This module has Apple's copyright in it and is different than the `xattr` module on pypi.

Wonder how this Python one-off in macOS came to be.