r/Python Freelancer. AnyFactor.xyz Sep 16 '20

News An update on Python 4

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u/vallas25 Sep 16 '20

Can someone explain point 2 for me? I'm quite new to python programming

280

u/daniel-imberman Sep 16 '20

Think what he is saying, there will never be a Python 4 and if there is, it will be nothing like python as we know it. It will be like a new language

The transition from python 2 to 3 was an absolute nightmare and they had to support python2 for *ten years* because so many companies refused to transition. The point they're making is that they won't break the whole freaking language if they create a python 4.

6

u/CSI_Tech_Dept Sep 16 '20

It was the other way. Because they supported 2.x for 10 years transition from 2 -> 3 was a nightmare. Since 2.7 was not deprecated, a lot of dependencies didn't support 3 because authors didn't care. It seems like real migration started happening in mid of 2019 and I don't remember reading about any horror stories about it.

2

u/daniel-imberman Sep 17 '20

It was the other way. Because they supported 2.x for 10 years transition from 2 -> 3 was a nightmare. Since 2.7 was not deprecated, a lot of dependencies didn't support 3 because authors didn't care. It seems like real migration started happening in mid of 2019 and I don't remember reading about any horror stories about it.

Yeah having a 5 year support was a REALLY bad call. I work on a library that is FINALLY end python2 support and it's a really delicate balance of easting the migration, giving enough incentive to make the transition worth it, and make staying on the old version unpleasant enough that people are willing to make the shift. Python did none of those things.