Booleans, integer division, backwards compatibility; where is Python going?

[James Logajan]

Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:
> Let me see if I'm clear on this.  You are complaining about the entire
> history of Python releases because of a problem you had with _Unicode_?

_I_ didn't have any problem with Unicode. Python did. Python caused 
_forward_ incompatibilities, not just backward ones.

> When was Unicode added to Python?  

That appears to be an irrelevant rhetorical question. One of the people 
using my program runs a Linux system running 1.5.2 and others seem to run 
2.x versions on Windows. The Windows versions would get e-mail containing 
UTF-8 sequences and after being displayed in a Tkinter text widget, would, 
as far as I can tell, come out as Unicode. Whatever the case, the text 
couldn't be e-mailed on to anyone else because the POP module choked on 
trying to send it over a socket.

> Did you really have such serious compatibility problems in other areas
> that you were forced to abandon the language?

There are other compatibility issues that gave me some problems.

>  Or was it just personal
> distaste at the pace of change?  Don't condemn the fast release cycle
> just because you got screwed on one incompatibility.

I condemn the growing number of versions that are proliferating. More 
versions invite a large probability of forward and backward compability 
problems. That is resulting in a Balkanization of the language. So I have 
concluded the fault is the fast release cycle. I can't change it, I didn't 
get any respectful responses when complaining about it a few months ago and 
still can't get any respectful responses this time around, so why is it so 
surprising that I should put aside the language after 4 some years?