[Nix-dev] Python 2 versus 3

[Peter Simons]

Hi,

as of now, it seems to be impossible to install Python 2 and 3 into the same
profile. There is no technical reason for that restriction, rather, the problem
is that both packages differ only in their version number, i.e. they're both
called "python", so nix-env won't install both of them at the same time.
Another side effect is that "nix -u python" will update the installed version
from 2.6.5 to 3.1.1. This is really not desirable, because Python 3 is a
different thing from Python 2.

Personally, I need to use both Python 2 and 3 at the same time. There are
several options to accomplish that, but IMHO the most straightforward solution
would be to change the name of the python 3.x package to *gasp* "python3"?

Does anyone other than me have an opinion regarding this issue?

Take care,
Peter