[Python-Dev] [RELEASED] Python 2.7 alpha 2 (original) (raw)

Brett Cannon brett at python.org
Mon Jan 11 07:30:49 CET 2010

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 21:27, Neil Schemenauer <nas at arctrix.com> wrote:

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 09:06:15PM -0800, Brett Cannon wrote: > If people start taking the carrots we have added to 3.x and > backporting them to keep the 2.x series alive you are essentially > making the 3.x DOA by negating its benefits which I personally > don't agree with.

I think we have got to the heart of our disagreement. Assume that some superhuman takes all the backwards compatible goodies from 3.x and merges them into 2.x. If that really would kill off Python 3 then I would proclaim it a project that deserved to die. Why should the backwards incompatible changes be endured if they cannot justify their existance by the benefit they provide? When I said "carrots" I meant everything that makes Python 3 the best version of Python, including the backward-incompatible changes.

I guess I have more confidence in Python 3 than you do. I don't see

why Python 2.x needs to be artificially limited so that Python 3 can benefit.

I don't view it as artificial but simply a focusing of the development team on what has been determined as the future of Python by Guido and letting go of the past.

IMO keeping Python 2.x around past 2.7 is the equivalent of python-dev saying "Python 3 is the future, but we are keeping the old Python 2.x around because we don't have that much faith in the future we have laid out". That's poison to Python 3 by showing a lack of confidence in the direction that the BDFL and python-dev as a group has chosen. Now I could be wrong and there could actually be a large number of active contributors who want to keep the 2.x series going, but based on the discussion that occurred the last time this came up I believe the guys who are keeping Python running are ready to move on.

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