Thanks for the keyword-only parameters mention. I'm a Py3 fan so have been looking down this thread for inspiration of features I've missed. I've often wanted to use keyword arguments for readability but without supplying a default - this is just the ticket.

There are some great things about Python 3, and then there are some things that are more subjective. But we have to ask at what cost? Breaking compatibility has required developers to spend huge amounts of time porting and worrying about compatibility that they could have spent on other things. Many of the best features of Python 3 could be introduced in a backwards compatible way. Further, the language itself could have advanced much faster if it stuck with compatible changes. We could have had microthreads or a JIT by now.

Even if you like "print" as a function, is it really so important to wipe out the huge inventory of working Python 2 code and stall Python development for a decade? Python 3 is a tragedy.

> the language itself could have advanced much faster if it stuck with compatible changes. We could have had microthreads or a JIT by now.

That is asinine bullshit and you should be ashamed.

> stall Python development for a decade?

The development of Python never stalled, it barely even slowed.

> That is asinine bullshit and you should be ashamed. ... The development of Python never stalled, it barely even slowed.

Thanks for the language, but the only thing I'm ashamed of is Python's lost opportunities. How many thousands or perhaps millions of hours of developer time was spent on compatibility or maintaining two versions? What if that energy was directed on the improving the language instead. There's no question that it would be further along than it is now.

Er, maybe you never heard of Stackless Python (micro-threads) or PyPy (JIT)?

Of course I have, they were what I was referring to. If we didn't have to deal with this python 2/3 schism, there's a solid chance they'd be part of mainline python by now.

Indeed. Not enough people seem to be aware of the new dict merge feature introduce:

  merged_dict = {
      **source_dict1,
      **source_dict2,
      **{
          'some_key': 'w00t!'
      }
  }