Re:No-op statements syntactically valid only since Python X.Y
by eesmith on Monday June 06, 2022 @11:40AM
(#31641878)
I think "six" proved more useful than 2to3. This made it easier to support both Python 2 and Python 3 in the same code base, which (IMO) resulted in a smoother migration path.
Re:No-op statements syntactically valid only since Python X.Y
by xenophonf on Monday June 06, 2022 @11:59AM
(#31642150)
You're absolutely right, and again, I think that reinforces how important a good migration path was to Python 3. Without that path, I think there was a real risk of Python dying off same as Perl 5.
It's sad because there was a lot I liked about Perl. I wish that community had better leadership because from my quick glance at the Wikipedia page, it looks like the Perl 7 project is making the same mistakes as Perl 6/Raku did. It's really too bad.
Re:No-op statements syntactically valid only since Python X.Y
by at_a_remove on Monday June 06, 2022 @12:57PM
(#31642898)
Perl's popularity was already in a nosedive by that point. I was programming in Perl much prior, was on numerous mailing lists, etc. The dropoff was startling.
Frankly, I believe the terrible state of affairs on CPAN was part of the problem, but it was initiated by the "there's more than one way to do it" mentality. If I wanted to do something where it would be a good idea to have a library for that task, I would have to search many candidates, each of which did sixty to eighty percent of whatever, then see which were long-abandoned, did what they actually managed to write match what I needed, etc.
I think Python 3 almost killed Python, too, and for the same reasons. The developers behind 2to3 saved the community, in my opinion, as did the folks who made the painful decision to publish a Python 2 end-of-life date sufficiently far enough into the future that people still using the old runtime had both a sense of urgency and plenty of time to complete their migrations. I finally made the leap to Python 3 around 2016. I'd like to claim that I jumped instead of being pushed, but the reality is that by then, people were developing new stuff I wanted badly on Python 3 exclusively.