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Python 3.0 To Be Backwards Incompatible

Posted by kdawson on from the it's-broke-jim dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "Organizations using Python will be affected in a major way by changes in store for the language over the course of the next twelve months, Linux.conf.au attendees were told this morning. The Python development community is working towards a new, backwards-incompatible version of the language, version 3.0, which is slated for release in early 2009. Anthony Baxter, the release manager for Python and a senior software engineer at Google Australia, said "We are going to break pretty much all the code. Pretty much every program will need changes." Baxter also added another tidbit for attendees, saying that Python accounts for around 15 percent of Google's code base."

10 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Workaround... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny
    I think I have a Perl script that'll fix this...

    Just kidding Python fanbois :-)
    Chill, it's Friday.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. Re:Just rename it. by Neil+Hodges · · Score: 5, Funny

    There are already other languages doing this. If you think naming closely-related languages the same thing is a kludge, what do you think of naming mostly-unrelated languages the same thing?

  3. Python is doomed by Arthur+B. · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look at C++, they broke backwards compatibility with C ( malloc casting for example ) and because of that it never became mainstream.

    --
    \u262D = \u5350
  4. Re:Whiners by Sciros · · Score: 3, Funny

    What color?

    --
    I like basketball!!1!
  5. Re:Just rename it. by Speare · · Score: 4, Funny

    Python's named after the troupe Monty Python, not after the snake species. I don't think renaming it is a good idea, but suitable successors would be [Life of] Brian, [Fish Called] Wanda, Flying Circus, Holy Grail or perhaps start with sub-versions like Cleese, Chapman and Palin.

    Alternatively, pick another troupe or favorite comedy show: Fry and Laurie, Mr. Bean, Fawlty Towers or Red Dwarf. Or my favorite, which brings back in the snake species AND British comedy into circular pun, Blackadder.

    While talking about puns, snakes and coming full circle, I suggest Ouroboros.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  6. Re:Just rename it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    > Otherwise, we'll be left with Python 1, Python 2, Cobra 1, Cobra 1.1, Cobra 1.3, Rattlesnake A, Rattlesnake SP1, Diamondback etc etc

    "THAT'S IT! I have had it with these muthafuckin' snakes on the covers of these muthafuckin' O'Reilly books!"
    - Guido L. Jackson.

  7. Re:Whiners by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's almost like there's more than one person with an opinion on this!

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    <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
  8. Re:Just rename it. by Tritoch · · Score: 5, Funny

    You could call it "Asp". Oh, wait...

  9. Re:It's a race by BOFHelsinki · · Score: 5, Funny

    15% of the google codebase consitutes a "small user base"? Why, yes. Google is a big user but still just one user. So if 15% of Google uses it, it's only 0.15 users. That's a very small user base. Even Mono has a larger user base (Miguel).

  10. Re:It's a race by Intron · · Score: 3, Funny

    You could just ask python:

    >>>"python" > "perl"
    True

    Whereas if you ask perl:
    perl -e 'print "python" > "perl"'

    It remains silent, see?

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.