[Python-ideas] Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

[Ralf W. Grosse-Kunstleve]

This is regarding the transition to Python 3, and the confusion caused
by using the same executable name for two incompatible interpreters.
The consequences of this struck me today when I saw this message
appear on an important bulletin board for the field I'm working in:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1562

This posting is from a heavy-weight in the field (lookup his name with
Google or better The Web of Science). Basically he's suggesting to forget
about Python because it is an unreliable environment.

There is also this reply calling the original posting "alarmist":

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1464

And this one making fun of the whole thing:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1675

I interpret these messages as early signs of an imminent decade of confusion.
Therefore my plea:

PLEASE GIVE THE PYTHON 3 EXECUTABLE A DIFFERENT NAME AND THE SCRIPTS
A DIFFERENT EXTENSION.

It will be a terrible political setback otherwise. Many people don't
*want* to understand even if they could. Mixing up two incompatible
interpreters under one name will give them plenty of ammunition for
cheap jokes and for defending their not-invented-here-or-before-I-was-16
attitude.

Ralf

P.S.: My wife is from Hungary. It seems all men in Hungary have to
have one of exactly three names: Andras, Laszlo, or Balazs. I never
know whom she's talking about...