[Python-Dev] PEP 414

[Barry Warsaw]

Hopefully, I can say the following in a constructive way.  I certainly don't
mean to attack anyone personally for their closely held beliefs, though I
might disagree with them.  And you have the right to those beliefs and to
express them in a respectful and constructive manner on this mailing list,
which I think you've done.  No criticisms there.

However, PEPs *are* official documents from the Python developer community, so
I think it's required of us to present technical issues in an honest light,
yet devoid of negative connotations which harm Python.

On Mar 01, 2012, at 09:12 PM, Armin Ronacher wrote:

>Why call it polemic?  If you want to use ubuntu LTS you're forcing
>yourself to stick to a particular Python version for a longer time.

Not just a particular Python 3 version, but a particular Python 2 version
too.  And a particular kernel version, and version of Perl, Ruby, Java, gcc,
etc. etc.  That's kind of the whole point of an LTS. :)

>Which means you don't want to have to adjust your code.  Which again
>means that you're better of with the Python 2.x ecosystem which is
>proven, does not change nearly as quickly as the Python 3 one
>(hopefully) so if you have the choice between those two you would chose
>2.x over 3.x.  That's what this sentence is supposed to say.  That's not
>polemic, that's just a fact.

I don't agree with the conclusion.  But none of that is germane to the PEP
anyway.

The PEP could simply say that for some domains, the ability to port code from
Python 2 to Python 3 would be enhanced by the reintroduction of the u-prefix.
It could even explain why WSGI applications in particular would benefit from
this.  That would be enough to justify Guido's acceptance of the PEP.

Cheers,
-Barry