[Python-Dev] PEP 407 / splitting the stdlib (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry at python.org
Thu Jan 19 13:00:35 CET 2012

On Jan 19, 2012, at 12:17 PM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:

The main problem I see with this is that Python 3 was a big disruptive event for the community, and calling a new version "Python 4" may make people anxious at the prospect of compatibility breakage.

s/was/is/

The Python 3 transition is ongoing, and Guido himself at the time thought it would take 5 years. I think we're making excellent progress, but there are still occasional battles just to convince upstream third party developers that supporting Python 3 (let alone switching to Python 3) is even worth the effort. I think we're soon going to be at a tipping point where not supporting Python 3 will be the minority position. Even if a hypothetical Python 4 were completely backward compatible, I shudder at the PR nightmare that would entail.

I'm not saying there will never be a time for Python 4, but I sure hope it's far enough in the future that you youngun's will be telling us about it in the Tim Peters Home for Python Old Farts, where we'll smile blankly, bore you again with stories of vinyl records, phones with real buttons, and Python 1.6.1 while you feed us our mush under chronologically arranged pictures of BDFLs Van Rossum, Peterson, and Van Rossum.

-Barry

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