major changes in python since version 2.2.3

Question

I've written a small python script to create a file and calculate times. I've tested it on Fedora 10, and Ubuntu 8.x and it worked well. the python versions were 2.5.x.

I tried to run it on my production server (an old red hat based linux server), the version of python is 2.2.3. the script does not work and raises a syntax error in the class definition.

the script defines a class with methods to create files on disk an measure the time, to estimate disk write speed. it starts like this:

class TestDiskSpeed():
    def __init__(self, rounds=1, speedMode=SPEED_MODE_MEGABYTE):

the class definition is pointed as the error by python 2.2.3.

what are the major changes in python since 2.2.3 that could possibly crash my application? I'm using these modules: os, sys, time, stat, gc.

Update:

by removing the () from class definition python accepted the class. but it raises another error on this line:

size = long(size) if size != None else self._size

I'm a PHP developer, just entered python programming (maybe a month), and am very used to the ternary operation which is done in PHP like this:

$var = (condition) ? $valueIfTrue : $valueIfFalse;

I searched and found it is done in python like the one I used for my size variable. though it seems python 2.2.3 does not like it.

I was going to insert all the code in here (I'm going to release the script as LGPL anyway), but the code is more than 150 lines (still in development).

Answer 1

I wrote a script a while ago to help answer this exact question: pyqver.

This script attempts to identify the minimum version of Python that is required to execute a particular source file.

When developing Python scripts for distribution, it is desirable to identify which minimum version of the Python interpreter is required. pyqver attempts to answer this question using a simplistic analysis of the output of the Python compiler.

Use the -v option to list the reasons why your script requires a particular minimum version. This is very helpful in deciding what to change to make your script work with a specific version of Python.

As always, feel free to fork and contribute!