I got the ability to work with Heroku using my Debian Stretch system

The other day I found that:

  1. Heroku needs Python 3.6 or later to work (as of June 22, 2018). See: Getting Started on Heroku with Python.
  2. Debian Stretch (Debian Stable as of June 22, 2018) and its backports have only Python 3.5.

The solution was to build a Docker image based upon Ubuntu 18.04, which does have Python 3.6. See the project https://gitlab.com/TDDPirate/heroku_on_debian in GitLab.

July 15, 2018 update:

After I complained about flakiness of Selenium-based tests when the Selenium server is running outside of the Docker container while the application runs inside the container, Udi Oron suggested another way to run Python 3.6 on a Debian Stretch system: use pyenv.

Turns out that pyenv solves the pain point of running Python 3.6 on Debian Stretch without having to use a container. So Selenium-based tests are now stable.

The following is an excellent article about using pyenv:
Pyenv – Python Version Management Made Easier

And the following is a link to the GitHub repository:
https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv

I suspect that pyenv is the reason why people are not in a hurry to backport new Python versions to Debian.

Author: Omer Zak

I am deaf since birth. I played with big computers which eat punched cards and spew out printouts since age 12. Ever since they became available, I work and play with desktop size computers which eat keyboard keypresses and spew out display pixels. Among other things, I developed software which helped the deaf in Israel use the telephone network, by means of home computers equipped with modems. Several years later, I developed Hebrew localizations for some cellular phones, which helped the deaf in Israel utilize the cellular phone networks. I am interested in entrepreneurship, Science Fiction and making the world more accessible to people with disabilities.

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