Add archive section

Author: takluyver

_sections/10-archive.md

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+---
+title: archive
+bg: 'white'
+---
+
+# History
+
+This page is now an archive of part of the transition from Python 2 to 3.
+
+By around 2015, when Python 2 support was originally planned to end, many
+important Python libraries and tools supported Python 3. But Python 2 still had
+a lot of users, and projects needed to support both major versions. The end of
+Python 2 support was postponed to 2020, and some people argued that development
+of Python 2 should resume. It seemed like a real possibility that the end date
+would be postponed again, and we'd need to support two versions of the language
+indefinitely.
+
+The Python 3 statement was drawn up around 2016. Projects pledged to require
+Python 3 by 2020, giving other projects confidence that they could plan a similar
+transition, and allowing downstream users to figure out their options without a
+nasty surprise. We didn't force people to move to Python 3, but if they wanted
+to stick with Python 2, they would stop getting new versions of our projects.
+The focus was originally on the scientific Python ecosystem, with Jupyter and
+matplotlib among the first projects involved, but in late 2017 it was expanded
+to any Python projects.
+A rapidly growing number of projects signed up as we approached 2020.
+
+The long-term transition we hoped for has succeeded: in 2024 it is entirely
+normal for projects to support only Python 3, simplifying maintainers' lives
+and letting us take full advantage of newer language features.
+
+Thank-you to all of the people, in projects big and small, who contributed
+their support to the statement!