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

[Brian Quinlan]

James wrote:
> Unicode is nice. So are all the other features that are being added to
2.x.
> It is that "x" in 2.x is growing large at an alarming rate and these
> "minor" releases are not minor in the colloquial meaning.

Unicode actually appeared in 1.6. Other than that, there weren't many
forward compatibility problems. I think that the backwards compatibility
issue is easily solved: just do your development on the LCD that you
want to support. And maybe have a simple test script that runs your test
suite against all of the Python versions that you have installed (I do
this using a batch file).

> > What is the total amount of time that you have spent resolving
> > compatibility problems?
> 
> Probably a few days and some worried nights. But the context of how
these
> problems cropped up and the unease they imparted were also important.

You worry too much :-) You have to measure your few days against the
productivity gains that Python has handed you.

> As I've said elsewhere, I don't know. I'll look again in not less than
6
> months. Might look at Lua or Ruby to start.

I remember reading some complaints, along similar lines, on the Ruby
list a few months ago. Try doing a google search. I don't know anything
about Lua.

> None are, so the next best thing is to look for ones that have a
> manageable number of extant releases.

I think that you will be stuck with either new or dead languages.

Cheers,
Brian