No, we - we being Python Core - want a calm, orderly transition to Python 3 over a period of several years. Python 2 will be around for some time, and we all know and accept that. Yes, if you have dependencies, using python 3 in production is not feasible. Even those of us who would like to be using Python 3 full time can not due to dependencies.

As for the OP - the transition/migration plan hasn't changed, and I'm personally sorry he feels burned, but Python 2.7 has always been on the roadmap for release. Our goal has been to make the 2.x series evolve into a gentle ramp into Python 3 as humanly possible.

The best way I've heard it put - use Python 3 if you can, Python 2 if you must.

For now a better guideline is: use Python 2. Even if you don't have any dependencies that require Python 2 today, at the start of your project, you might wish you could add them tomorrow.

And using 3to2 you can easily "downgrade" your code should you desire that. Green field projects should totally feel comfortable with using it.

Cheers man!

The Core Team's work is a dream for maintaining my various Python code.

Python 2.x is so solid, I'm still relying on 2.5 but I'll definitely go freshen everything up for 2.7 (if only to get rid of my hand-rolled ordered dict implementations).

I tinker with 3 on new projects and am looking forward to using it more, but don't at all mind the reasoned thought and caution applied by all before trying to use it everywhere.

I follow Python but I don't really program in it. I don't know how you could read everything that you guys have put out and not understand things are progressing according to plan.

Good work on Python 2.7 btw. :)