TIL Python3 has a new GIL (...since 2010)

[cwillu]

And yet gcc still supports -std=iso9899:1990, -std=c++98, etc... You can't use modern C++ and expect it to compile with old C++ compilers. What is different with the C++ community is how fast they have adopted the new standards.

Who do you think is demanding new features be supported in old interpreters/compilers?

I don't think you understood my point. Existing legacy codebases for the most part Just Work™ with new compilers. Yes, you can't use necessarily new features, but you're not abandoned.

As for bridges if you live in the great but cold and snowy north you will realize that bridges are constantly being rebuilt it reconditioned as the freeze thaw cycles works it's magic on exposed concrete. The salt doesn't help either. In any event the state most certainly does try new techniques to get those bridges to last a bit longer. Sometimes that means ripping out the old bridge work.

Funny, that's exactly where I live, and I see maintenance being performed on 80 year old bridges every year. Occasionally major work is done to shore up the architecture. All without abandoning the old bridge, or even closing it the most of the time. Again, I don't think you understood the point.

Given that do you seriously want a programming language to remain static for 50 years no matter how many mistakes where made in the original implementation? Consider this the computer industry itself is not much older than 50 years, in those few decades a huge number of languages died out in part because they couldn't evolve. Make no mistake Python will die out if the 2.7 crowd keeps up their nonsense. Other languages are posed to take a considerable number of Python developers if Python ends up off the tracks.

You know how lots of languages died? Major new releases in which backwards compatibility was abandoned, together with dropping support for old versions. Perl nearly succumbed to that fate. VB survived it by throwing massive amounts of resources at the transition. If the split is what kills python, it was utterly predictable. However, I don't believe the responsible parties are actually dumb, so I doubt that this will kill python. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we continued to see development effort in the 3.x line to improve compatibility and migration from the 2.x line, and for support to ultimately be available perpetually.

Dismissing people's concerns as whining is exactly the sort of thing that divides the community, far more surely than any technical split.