The 1.8/1.9 switch was problematic and can be seen in parallel with the python 2.7/3.x switch. Rails 2/Rails 3 was a similar big jump that reengineered the whole framework. Rails 4 was a much tamer release in that regard.
But one has to realize that 1.8 was the series of Ruby that was started _before_ Ruby even got popular (I started Ruby using 1.6, which was even more problematic). So being aggressive in breaking stuff with the next iteration (basically, to do it proper, with more manpower and data to work on) also opened up a lot - for example, Ruby 1.9 to 2.0 is a much simpler switch and I have many clients running 2.0 now and testing on 2.1.
The fear I always have with python 2.7 is the distant future. It just irritates me to have a huge migration in front of me. The Rubyist in me wants to keep up with the current state of things.
Re:About Python 3
by cookiecaper on Monday December 30, 2013 @09:27PM
(#6988572)
1.8/1.9 and 2.x/3.x were handled very differently by the respective communities. That's evident even from the version numbers.
Re:About Python 3
by halostatue on Monday December 30, 2013 @11:47PM
(#6989020)
That's because until well into the development of Ruby 1.9, Ruby was still using the odd (dev)/even (release) approach. 1.9 introduced things that were different, and it wasn't stable enough for production use until 1.9.2, at which point work on 2.0 started.
Now, I work primarily with Python 2.7, with migration to 3 being a distant pipe dream. After years of Rubying, I find it a bit old-fashioned, awkward and occasionally infuriating (strings default to ASCII? srsly?) -- but I do appreciate knowing that I will not have to rewrite everything anytime soon.