EVE Online: The Move to Python 3 Begins!
- ID
- 17847
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 26 Aug 2026, 6:59 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Aug 2026, 7:10 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/25/eve-online-move-to-python-3/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 26 Aug 2026, 7:10 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developers
What happened
EVE Online is beginning its migration from Stackless Python 2.7 to Python 3, their first major Python upgrade in 16 years. The migration covers 2.4 million lines of code using the 'futurize' script, followed by manual review of ~20,000 locations where Python 2 and 3 behavior differs (e.g., integer division). Their newer game EVE Frontier already replaced Stackless Python using the now open-source carbonengine/scheduler library.
Why it matters
If you maintain a large legacy Python 2 codebase, the concrete approach here—running futurize then manually auditing the ~20,000 semantic difference points—is a useful reference for scoping your own migration effort. The open-source carbonengine/scheduler library is worth examining if you build task scheduling systems that previously relied on Stackless Python.
Discussion angle
How do you estimate manual review burden for a large Python 2→3 migration—EVE's ratio of ~20,000 semantic difference points across 2.4M lines gives a rough benchmark of roughly one review point per 120 lines.