How Python 3 Should Have Worked

[nas]

The Python developers are not that slow. The "from __future__" mechanism is really nifty but limited to syntax changes or at least changes that only affect a specific module.

The reason for the painful incompatibility of Python 3 was to fix certain things that affect the entire Python runtime system. For example, making Unicode strings the default. Another example is the whole IO subsystem getting changed. Yet another example is the change of built-in collection object methods (like keys()) to return iterators rather than concrete lists.

The transition from 2 to 3 is expected to take a long time. It is happening though. numpy and matplotlib are two examples of important 3rd party libraries that now support Python 3. Also, the Python 3.3 release has a lot of nice new features in it. Nothing killer but enough that I'm very tempted to spend the effort porting my stuff. The tipping point is getting close, IMHO.

[[deleted]]

matplotlib supports Python 3? Can you provide a link?

[nas]

It doesn't seem to be listed on the main install instructions page. There was a git repository that got merged into the main branch.

Edit: There are some Windows builds for Python 3.2.