The looming Python 3(000) monster

[Arthur Pemberton]

2008/12/5 Toshio Kuratomi <a.badger at gmail.com>:
> Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>> On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 12:45 PM, Basil Mohamed Gohar
>> <abu_hurayrah at hidayahonline.org> wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2008-12-05 at 12:40 -0600, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>>>> 2008/12/5 Toshio Kuratomi <a.badger at gmail.com>:
>>>>
>>>> Maybe I am oversimplifying. But what about using 2.6+ (<3.0) and
>>>> ensure that all code is compatible with 3. And still have 3 in
>>>> parallel for those who want it. So we target 2.6+ , but have 3.0 there
>>>> to ensure everything would work with it, and for early adopters/devs
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Fedora 9 : sulphur is good for the skin
>>>> ( www.pembo13.com )
>>>>
>>> It would be very hard to write 2.6 code that is completely compatible
>>> with 3.0, because 3.0 has changed many fundamental language constructs,
>>> including even the "print" statement, which in 3.0 is a function (syntax
>>> change).
>>
>> I believe 'print' is a poor example as it is very easy to fix. Are
>> there other, more problematic ones?
>>
> Yes, print is a poor example for the 2.6=>3.0 compatibility test (it is
> a good example for 2.5=>3.0 compatibility, though, as there's no way to
> redefine a keyword from within python.)
>
> The problem area that I'm most aware of is unicode handling.  There have
> been some major improvements to this that make it more sane.  However,
> there's also been some regressions.  Some of those regressions lead to
> code that looks like it should work but silently fail to do what's
> expected on *nix in some corner cases.
>
> -Toshio


Fair enough. Think I'll shutup for now as there seem to be smarter
stakeholders involved than I. However, would just like to say that it
will be nice to have 3.0 in parallel (but not built against) as soon
as possible. Especially as Python is pushing a head in areas such as
web dev.


-- 
Fedora 9 : sulphur is good for the skin
( www.pembo13.com )