The looming Python 3(000) monster

[Basil Mohamed Gohar]

On Fri, 2008-12-05 at 09:42 -0500, Michael DeHaan wrote:
> We're just now dealing with Python 2.6, but over on the radar is perhaps 
> one of the most incompatible upgrades to the language we've seen in 
> Python 3.  I personally haven't tried it yet, but it /aims/ to be 
> incompatble, which is perhaps one of the most glaring signs a language 
> designer has lost it that I've seen.
> 
> http://docs.python.org/3.0/whatsnew/3.0.html
> 
> This isn't a huge problem to those who are only developing on the latest 
> Fedora, per-se (other than getting over the initial hump), but it's 
> pretty bad for someone who wants to keep a single codebase across EL 4 
> (Python 2.3) and up, which I think a lot of us do.   That gets to be 
> darn impossible and we have to double our involvement with code because 
> we essentially have to maintain a differently-compatible fork for each 
> project.
> 
> (NOTE: this requires the viewpoint that not everyone care just about the 
> latest Fedora, which might be controversial... but to me, the latest 
> Fedora is what I'll run as my dev environment but not everyone can 
> upgrade -- and many folks are also running EL and EPEL deserves our full 
> support and consideration)
> 
> So, what of plans?
> 
> Are we looking at also carrying on with packaging 2.N indefinitely when 
> we do decide to carry 3, because as I know it, the code changes to make 
> something Python 3 compatible will be severe and that's a big item for 
> any release, and will probably result in some undiscovered bugs even 
> after the initial ports (if applied).
> 
> I haven't seen /anything/ regarding a compatibility mode for 
> /usr/bin/python, and I'd hate to have to develop a non-core library that 
> allows for functions that work the same way on both versions and use 
> that instead.  That would be heinous.
> 
> Short of porting everything over to Ruby, oCaml, or 
> enterprise-Fortran.NET#4000, any ideas on planning for this?
> 
> --Michael
> 
I'm not a Python developer, but I have been reading with a lot of
interest the upgrade in Fedora to 2.6 as well as the release of this new
dynamic programming language named "Python 3000".  It seems that the
prevailing wisdom, which fits with the scenario you have mentioned, is
to make everything work now with 2.6, and then the 2to3 utility will
make the move to 3000 much easier, if not painless.

Of course, again, not being Pythonic myself, this all sounds good to me,
but the devilish details are not apparent either.