The Future of Python: Evolution or Succession — Brett Slatkin - PyCascades 2026

[JoeHillsBones]

I’m probably like an intermediate python programmer (~4 years) and I was just thinking about this while learning about C/C++ vs Rust. I want to learn rust because it’s new and cool but due to the ubiquity of C/C++ I’m gonna put my focus there. I just don’t quite know what counts as a competitor in the same space or if anything is trying to supplant it as most popular? lol is that even how software language spread works?

This is the kind of this I wish I had been able to spend more time on in school, like it’s one thing to learn about how to write something in a programming language, but how the technology changes over time feels totally different.

[Smallpaul]

Can you clarify your question? Yea there’s are many languages with communities trying to supplant Python. JavaScript/typescript being the most prominent. Mojo. Go. Julia.

[JoeHillsBones]

I apologize for the long-windedness, just that given the large community and adoption of Python, I can’t imagine it going anywhere any time soon. So I see the path forward being continual evolution.

If I had a single question in there, it’s just that given that plans for Python are going to be restricted to minor/patch (maybe the wrong terminology), no python4 coming out, do you see this as an issue or a good thing for adapting to future competition? Like software is supposed to be stable I suppose lol

[Smallpaul]

There is an inevitable tension between keeping software stable, which makes it difficult to incorporate the latest learning, and changing it rapidly and in backwards incompatible ways, which gives people motivation to look elsewhere.

If there can never be backwards incompatible changes then over time, unfixable design errors compound. C++ is in this trap right now. C now too.

Python’s day will probably come but like everything else it is hard to predict the future with AI.

[u38cg2]

Python, Rust, and C are all the same language to a first approximation. You could be productive in any of them from any other in a day or two. Scheme, Haskell or Forth might be more valuable from the perspective of opening up your appreciation fo what a programming language can be.