Guido rethinking removal of cmp from sort method

[Paul Rubin]

Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> writes:
> Why would having PyPy as the reference implementation have made this design
> decisions turn out better?

A fair amount of Python 2's design was influenced by what was convenient
or efficient to implement in CPython.  There's nothing wrong with that
and it's a perfectly normal and sensible strategy.  Anyone writing
Python code in a serious way has to maintain some awareness of how
CPython works, so CPython's influence finds its way into Python user
programs too.  With PyPy as the reference implementation, the designers
may find they can take the language in cool new directions that were
impossible with CPython, or alternatively, they might find that adding
minor retrictions (that would count as "breaking more stuff") would give
big advantages under PyPy that weren't significant in CPython.  What
kinds of stuff and is any of it a sure thing?  Unknown.  That's why the
idea was: first get more experience with PyPy, then figure out how it
should affect the language.