[Python-Dev] (Looking for) A Retrospective on the Move to Python 3

[Eric Snow]

On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com> wrote:
> In pondering our approach to future Python major releases, I found
> myself considering the experience we've had with Python 3.  The whole
> Py3k effort predates my involvement in the community so I missed a
> bunch of context about the motivations, decisions, and challenges.
> While I've pieced some of that together over the years now since I've
> been around, I've certainly seen much of the aftermath.  For me, at
> least, it would be helpful to have a bit more insight into the
> history. :)

As to motivation, I suppose (since I wasn't involved yet) that it was roughly:

    let's bite the bullet and fix unicode with a backward-incompatible release

which led to:

    well, we're already going to break backward compatibility so we might
    as well get any breakage we're planning over with now so folks only
    have to fix their code for this release

and then to:

    oh, and while we're at it let's clean up a bunch of cruft that's built up
    over the years

At least that's my impression. :)

-eric