[Python-Dev] RELEASED Python 3.0 final

[A.M. Kuchling]

On Fri, Dec 05, 2008 at 05:40:46AM -0000, glyph at divmod.com wrote:
> For most users, especially new users who have yet to be impressed with  
> Python's power, 2.x is much better.  It's not like "library support" is  
> one small check-box on the language's feature sheet: most of the  
> attractive things about Python are libraries.  Of course I am not free  

Here I agree, sort of.  Newbies may not understand what they're giving
up in terms of libraries.  (The 'sort of' is because, having learned
3.0, learning the changes for 2.6 is certainly much easier than
learning a first programming language is.)

> The third (albeit much less likely) option is that you're learning  
> Python to learn to interact with a system that's scriptable in embedded  
> Python, like Blender or Gimp.  I don't think there's a single system of  
> that variety which uses 3.0 yet, and these will likely be even slower to  
> move than libraries.  

Let me note that if some application embeds Python for a specialized
purpose, where the only modules imported are either user-written or
part of the application, it seems much *easier* to move to Python 3
because the scripts don't use arbitrary third-party libraries.  Python
embedded in an e-mail MTA might use libraries for DNS or file I/O or
databases and has to be cautious about versions; Python in Gimp
probably doesn't, in practice.

--amk