[Python-Dev] Python 4: don't remove anything, don't break backward compatibility

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:50:12 +0100
Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2014-03-10 16:25 GMT+01:00 Stefan Richthofer <Stefan.Richthofer at gmx.de>:
> > I don't see the point in this discussion.
> > As far as I know, the major version is INTENDED to
> > indicate backward-incompatible changes.
> 
> This is not a strict rule. I would like to follow Linux 3 which didn't
> break the API between Linux 2 and Linux 3.
> 
> > Even then, there is no need for 4.0; you can just have 3.10, 3.11 etc.
> 
> The major version is sometimes seen as the age of a project. I propose
> to bump Python to version 4 because people understand that Python 4 is
> much better than Python 3 :-) Firefox changes its major version every
> 4 months or something like that. I suggest to wait less than 8 years
> for Python 4.

But then, three is the number, not four, and five is right out:

"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to
three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count,
and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not
count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to
three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third
number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Regards

Antoine.