Python vs Java garbage collection?

[Brian Quinlan]

> Since for Python, that's the documentation available on
> python.org, and that documentation _explicitly_ states that relying on
> timely finalization is a bad idea, relying upon it is, well, a bad
idea
> if you want to write software that continues to work properly down the
> road.

Core language features are less reliable than some CPython
implementation details. For example, the semantics for the / operator
are going to change before the finalization timing. 

> As I have said, and probably will have to say many more times before
> this accursed thread dies, the suggestion that the finalization
behavior
> of CPython might change was entirely theoretical.  I have no doubt
that
> it will never change for the life of CPython.  An utterly theoretical,
> trivial point has been inflated as if it were the main focus of my
> comment, which it never was.

So why would I worry about an entirely theoretical point while I code? 

Cheers,
Brian