Python 2 to 3 conversion - embrace the pain

[Paul Rubin]

Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> writes:
>>> Solution: Use it! Do the port to Python 3, and file those upstream
>>> bug reports.
>> One should mention that John did all of that.
> Yep. I'm not saying that John did the wrong thing; what I'm saying is
> that, sometimes, this kind of pain is the exact thing that makes life
> better for everyone else. Someone has to be first, and if everyone
> shies away from something for fear of being first, everyone misses out
> on the benefit.

It's great to decide to be first.  That's called signing up for a beta
test program, and lots of people do that when there's something new and
interesting that they want to use for something non-critical.  The issue
is when something is advertised as mature and working properly, when
it's really better described as still being in beta test.  I doubt John
thought he was signing up for that.

Python 2 is by now pretty solid and its users don't feel like beta
testers any more.  If you're saying using Python 3 by contrast means
"being first" and "reporting bugs", that basically translates to "stay
away from it except for experimentation".

I saved a quote from Hacker News a while back (I don't know who the
author is):

    "You know why I'm not running python 3? Because it doesn't solve a
    single problem I have. It doesn't solve anyone's problems. It solves
    imaginary problems, while creating real problems."

      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7802575

I think the person went a bit overboard, but other than the Unicode
revamp I don't know what Python 3 improvements couldn't have been done
in Python 2 without breaking anything.