[Python-Dev] [PEPs] Rebooting PEP 394 (aka Support the /usr/bin/python2 symlink upstream)

[Guido van Rossum]

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> There was no comparable transition. Python 2.0 was basically 1.6 renamed for
> a different distributor.

No that's not true. If you compare the "what's new" sections there is
quite a large difference between 1.6 and 2.0, despite being released
simultaneously.

> I regard Python 2.2, which introduced new-style, as
> the beginning of Python 2 as something significantly different from Python
> 1.

Just compare:

http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.0/
http://www.python.org/download/releases/1.6/

No argument that 2.2 was a big jump for the type system -- but not for Unicode.

> I suppose one could also point to the earlier intro of unicode.

In 1.6. (But internally we called it the "contractual obligation
release", a Monty Python reference.)

> The new
> iterator protocol was also a major change. In any case, back compatibility
> was kept in all three respects (and others) until Python 3.

(I gotta go, but I don't think it was such a big deal -- it was very
carefully made backwards compatible.)

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)