the Gravity of Python 2

[Roy Smith]

As somebody who is still firmly in the 2.x world, I'm worried about the 
idea of a 2.x fork.  While I have my doubts that 3.x was a good idea, 
the fact is, it's here.  Having the community fractured between the two 
camps is not good.  Let's say I'm somebody who wants to contribute some 
OSS.  I have three basic choices:

1) I can make it 3.x only.  Now, (nominally) half of the python 
community is unable to realize value from my contribution.

2) I can make it 2.x only.  Same thing in reverse.

3) I can make it work on both 2.x and 3.x, which means I'm investing 
more effort than I had to if it were single platform.

Any of those alternatives is worse than ideal.  Forking 2.x to create an 
unofficial 2.8 release would just prolong the situation.  As I've stated 
before, I don't see any urgency in moving to 3.x, and don't imagine 
doing there for another couple of years, but I absolutely can't imagine 
moving to a 2.8 fork.