Python 3.0, 'Python 3000', has reached its first public release. This version will be followed by beta releases throughout 2008, and the final release is scheduled for August 2008. "Python 3000 ('Py3k', and released as Python 3.0) is a new version of the language that is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed."
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Member since:2005-11-11
You do know that they're making the "incompatible" 3.0 version in parallel with the 2.6, beackwards compatible version, right?
So for a long time, there will be a new, backwards compatible Python version as well as the 3.0
So I think they're aware that the backwards compatibility is important, while at the same time understanding that it will sometimes stand in the way of progress.
Member since:2005-11-09
Yes, I'm aware that the 2.x branch will be maintained for years to come. But put it this way: If Python was just like Microsoft, they would wrap 2.4 into a new package, add a JavaScript utility and call it 3.0, and six months later they would release Python 95 
Thank God (or someone, I dunno) that there're still sensible people in this world 
Member since:2007-09-01
Member since:2005-07-06
For web applications, I would probably prefer Java in most cases for performance reasons. On the other hand, sometimes there are more than speed to consider. With tools like Plone and Zope very advanced web functionality can be created without even touching the Python that supplies the functionality in the background.
Python is still a very nice language though. I'm not saying that big companies won't use python. What I'm saying is that they wont use python 3.0 They will stay with the 2.x branch for as long as possible, making much of the new nice stuff sort of wasted..
Just compare the Python situation with that of Java. In the java case, 10 years old, or older java classes runs well on the latest java 6. But even so most people still use jdk1.4, people are afraid to upgrade even though java 6 is a completely different animal with respect to speed and ease of development than jdk1.4, so in reality there is very little reason not to upgrade. Still they don't. So, What do you think will happen to python where backward compatibility is broken deliberately.
IMHO, having just one branch, where you try to be backward compatible for say at least 10 years but evolve without breaking old things is a better way to introduce new things. That way more daring developers have a better chance to influence old conservative ones with a "if it worked for grand dad it works for me" attitude.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Given that large Projects like Zope not even use the latest version of python 2, I wouldn't have too high hopes.
Backward compatibility is also very important make python a credible alternative in business.
Companies, that intend to write software with millions of lines of code are not likely to chose Phyton over e.g. java, if you need to rewrite the code every time the language developers finds a more elegant way of doing things.
In some sense I would say that the Python people are a bit too smart for their own good.