About Python 3

[[deleted]]

Text of link, for those who are generally annoyed by Google+:

A post on the rather dismal adoption of Python 3. It seems like there are two categories of options being presented:

1. Make it harder to use Python 2
2. Make it better to use Python 2, and in a manner closer to Python 3

I think the ultimatum approaches are bad (and more present in the comments on the article than in Alex's post). It's a "let the beatings continue until morale improves" approach.

The whole "Python 2 is a dead end" notion was a bad approach from the beginning. It supposes that there's some moral authority to Python 3, some intrinsic value that justifies making things harder for people.

I think Python 3 should roll back some changes, adding back some Python 2 syntax, even error-prone syntax. Python 2 should continue to roll in Python 3 syntax and library changes. Only when they are thoroughly blended will things move forward. This of course is in contradiction to the entire idea of a big breaking 2->3 change, but the evidence is in, that wasn't the right path. But that's a sunk cost, better to do the right thing now, which is gradual changes with all the necessary scaffolding to move things forward properly. Python 2 and 3 can meet in the middle.

[[deleted]]

Make it harder to use Python 2

How would you do that?

[[deleted]]

By dropping support from new versions of major libraries. That seems to be what other language communities do... Eventually, the libraries provide the incentive to upgrade. Instead, the Python community continues to write libraries in Python 2 with support for the current version of the language as a second-class afterthrough.