Python 3

Read an interesting screed on Python 3.

Thoughts on Python 3

Agreed.

This paragraph pretty much sums it up:

Python 3 is in the spot where it changed just too much that it broke all our code and not nearly enough that it would warrant upgrading immediately. And in my absolutely personal opinion Python 3.3/3.4 should be more like Python 3 and Python 2.8 should happen and be a bit more like Python 3. Because as it stands, Python 3 is the XHTML of the programming language world. It’s incompatible to what it tries to replace but does not offer much besides being more “correct”.

I really like Python. Moved from Perl (for PC work) when CPU’s got fast enough for Python. The Python out-of-box was terrific.

But, Python 3 is another language. I can’t justify porting all my personal “library” code to another language. Some of the Python 3 stuff reminds me of C++ – puffiness for the sake of puffiness. If forced to go to Python 3, I’d evaluate what language to use as I did when moving from Perl.

And as it stands, it’s very clear that, since all the garbage-collection-memory-protection languages are equivalent, the last one standing will be JavaScript. You have to write the occasional JavaScript. So you have to pay the entrance fee. Maybe node.js will end up making JavaScript work reasonably as a non-browser language. Something will. And that’s the end of all the other languages (excepting the type-anal ones for corporate cubicles). Poof. Python 3 becomes a non-issue.

If Python ran in the browsers and if it ran on all the newer OS’s, then fine. It could go head to head with JavaScript. Otherwise … Too bad. Sad. I may be a curly bracket guy, but Python just looks and feels better than JavaScript.