Python is a very popular tool widely used at ECMWF and elsewhere. If you do not use it, you can ignore this message.
As you may know, the official support for Python 2 ends this year. Since Python 3 is not backwards-compatible, steps must be taken to migrate to this new major version. With the lack of official support, we may not be able to install Python 2 on future platforms. Keeping it up-to-date on the existing is also proving increasingly difficult, since many extra modules have dropped their support for Python 2 already. Note that this is not something affecting ECMWF only. If you run Python workloads elsewhere, you will face the same issues.
At ECMWF we have been preparing in order to ensure a smooth transition. Python 3 has been available on all our systems for some time, and it comes with nearly all the extra modules present in our Python 2 installations. This includes interfaces to all our in-house packages and libraries such as ecCodes, Magics or ecFlow. Metview's Python interface has been always only available in Python 3.
We would like to encourage everyone still using Python 2 to take action and start the migration as soon as possible. There are tools that can help you in this task, by doing most of the code changes for you. Please have a look at the Migration to Python 3 wiki page for some advise on how to do this.
To assist you, a series of Python Surgeries have been planned. The surgeries are the perfect opportunity to bring your own code and tackle any migration or other kind of issues you have with the help of John Stinson from Data Intuition. The next surgeries are scheduled for: - 13 September 2019 - Meeting Room 6 (09.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs) If you are interested in attending any those, please register on the Python Surgeries wiki page to help use plan the days. Additionally, John Stinson will be returning to ECMWF on 17 & 18 October 2019 for a 2 day intermediate Python course. This course builds on the content covered in the online python training organised by FD some time ago. Therefore, completing the online course and replying to the final survey are a prerequisite for the participation to the face-to-face versions. The training will take place in the Classroom at ECMWF. Places are limited, so interested staff should contact Julie Palmer as soon as possible. |
Please do not hesitate to contact servicedesk@ecmwf.int for any questions or concerns.