Python 3000, zip, *args and iterators

[Terry Reedy]

"Steven Bethard" <steven.bethard at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:O5Jzd.566495$wV.471519 at attbi_s54...
> Terry Reedy wrote:
>> I think it worth repeating that Python 3 is at yet something of a 
>> pipedream, as indicated by the joke name Python 3000

> Right, though my understanding of PEP 3000[1] is that though "Python 
> 3000"  may never exist, the PEP is there as a road-map of where Python as 
> a language would like to go.

A major backwards compatibility break will not happen without a major 
number change to Py3.  And I expect it to happen -- the 'as yet' was 
intentional.  In fact, here is my New Year's prediction (with subjective 
certainty > .5):

a. The PyPy project will succeed.
b. Python3 (actually, the reference implementation thereof) will be written 
in Python3 (perhaps with 'draft' in Py2).
c. We will see it within 5 years.

We will see if I am any better than the tabloid 'psychics'.

>I guess the point of my question is to find out if this kind of nice 
>interaction of *args and iterators is something that's in the road-map. 
>If it is, then maybe there are parts of it that could be implemented in a 
>way that's backwards compatible, even if the full system wouldn't be 
>available for some time.  (Perhaps something along the lines of "from 
>__future__ import iter_args".)

You can certainly share your concerns with the PEP author.  I believe that 
there is also a PyWiki page that you can directly add to.

Terry J. Reedy