[Python-Dev] RELEASED Python 3.0 final (original) (raw)

Aahz aahz at pythoncraft.com
Sun Dec 7 01:20:32 CET 2008

On Sat, Dec 06, 2008, Guido van Rossum wrote:

But I do not think it is a good idea to emphasize elsewhere that most people shouldn't use Python 3.0. Py3k will have a hard enough time gaining mindshare without the very developers who created it discouraging its use. If you can't find it in your heart to recommend 3.0, can you at least keep that within your circle of library-producing friends?

Sorry, I don't think I can do that. It's difficult-to-impossible to leap straight from Python 2.2 or 2.3 to 3.0, and I think that most released Python software still ought to support versions going back that far. Unless someone plans to use Python only on machines where they can guarantee availability of 3.0, I think that sticking with 2.x is the prudent course.

Then again, until the release of 3.0, I was still advocating the use of classic classes in the 2.x series, and I haven't yet decided whether I should change that stance now that there is a released version of Python where new-style classes are the default.

I believe that it would be a shame and a disservice to Python if there were a large proportion of the Python community that discouraged the use of 3.0; I also believe it would be a shame and a disservice to Python if you (and other people) tell conservatives like me that we should keep our mouths shut.

Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"It is easier to optimize correct code than to correct optimized code." --Bill Harlan

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