[Python-ideas] Python 3000 TIOBE -3%

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/9/2012 12:46 PM, Massimo Di Pierro wrote:
> I think if easy_install, gevent, numpy (*), and win32 extensions where
> included in 3.x, together with a slightly better Idle (still based on

I am working on the patches already on the tracker, starting with bug fixes.

> Tkinter, with multiple pages,

If you mean multiple tabbed pages in one window, I believe there is a patch.

  autocompletion,

IDLE already has 'auto-completion'. If you mean something else, please 
explain.

> collapsible [blocks], line numbers,

I have thought about those.

> better printing with syntax highlighting),

Better basic printing support is really needed. #1528593
Color printing if not possible now would be nice, as color printers are 
common now. I have no idea if tkinter print support makes either easier now.

> and if easy_install were accessible via Idle, this would be a killer version.

That should be possible with an extension.

> Longer term removing the GIL and using garbage collection should be a
> priority. I am not sure what is involved and how difficult it is but

As has been discussed here and on pydev, the problems include things 
like making Python slower and disabling C extensions.

> perhaps this is what PyCon money can be used for. If this cannot be done
> without breaking backward compatibility again, then 3.x should be
> considered an experimental branch, people should be advised to stay with
> 2.7 (2.8?) and then skip to 4.x directly when these problems are

For non-Euro-Americans, a major problem with Python 1/2 was the use of 
ascii for identifiers. This was *fixed* by Python 3. When I went to 
Japan a couple of years ago and stopped in a general bookstore (like 
Borders), its computer language section had about 10 books on Python, 
most in Japanese as I remember. So it is apparently in use there.

> resolved. Python should not make a habit of breaking backward
> compatibility.

I believe the main problem has been the unicode switch, which is 
critical to Python being a world language. Removal of old-style classes 
was mostly a non-issue, except for the very few who intentionally 
continued to use them.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy