Python 3.x support has been a topic of discussion here for years, and I finally have some news on that front. :)
As I've teased a bit earlier on Twitter, I'm working on a version of Pythonista that is based on Python 3.5.1 instead of the current 2.7.5. I've made pretty good progress recently, and the app is already in a completely usable state with most custom and third-party modules working. The app's UI is essentially identical to Pythonista 2.0.
Things that are working so far:
- Python 3.5.1 with all new syntax features and most standard library modules (exceptions are basically the same as in 2.x, i.e. mostly Tkinter)
- Numpy, matplotlib, Pillow, PyCrypto, and most other third-party modules that are currently included in Pythonista 2.0 (in some cases more recent versions than in 2.0)
- Most custom modules (
ui
,scene
,contacts
,reminders
, ...)
Not working yet:
- A few custom modules (currently only
notification
,editor
, andcanvas
) - The app extension (invoking Pythonista from the share sheet)
- The URL scheme
- The documentation browser
- The example scripts aren't completely ported yet
- A couple of third-party modules that are included in Pythonista 2.0, but aren't (yet?) compatible with Python 3 (screenplain, midiutil, mechanize, xhtml2pdf)
There are probably still a few bugs in the ported versions of my custom modules. Getting the string/unicode handling to work right has been tricky in some cases, and I haven't tested all modules very thoroughly yet.
I expect that I'll have the first beta ready within the next week or so, hopefully without some of the limitations I've listed above. I'll post a new beta signup form here when I'm ready.
Lastly, this will be a separate app, or "paid upgrade" if you will. This is, by the way, one of the reasons I did not charge for the 2.0 update. It'll co-exist with Pythonista 2.x for a while because there are still valid reasons to prefer Python 2.7, and I don't want to force people to upgrade to a version that is not backwards-compatible.
As I've mentioned before, creating an app that supports both Python 2 and 3 would be very difficult, if not impossible. The only way this could theoretically work would require relaunching the app in order to switch versions, and I honestly think that having Python 3 in a separate app will result in a better user experience and less confusion. It will be possible to access files in Pythonista 2.x from 3.x though (and vice-versa).