
Porting to Python 3 is like “eating your vegetables” - joeyespo
http://nothingbutsnark.svbtle.com/porting-to-python-3-is-like-eating-your-vegetables
======
PhantomGremlin
I just looked at pg. 6 of K&R (I had the 2nd edition handy). There's a program
there, short enough to reproduce here in full:

    
    
        #include <stdio.h>
    
        main()
        {
            printf("hello, world\n");
        }
    

I keyed in the program and typed

    
    
        cc hello.c
    

I then typed

    
    
        a.out
    

and I got the output

    
    
        hello, world
    

That worked in 1978 and it works in 2015.

But, surprise, surprise, surprise, Python 3 broke "hello, world", consequently
Python 3 broke 99+% of existing Python programs.

Ergo, it follows, Python 3 is a new language. Similar to the previous, but
different enough to be annoying.

And, in the case of print statement --> print function, _gratuitously
annoying_. Oh, sure, there's probably a PEP justifying this, but still, some
things are best left alone.

------
paulhauggis
I love Python 3, but the main reasons I haven't converted everything over is
because half of the libraries I use only work with 2.

Creating an entire new version after lots of people already built their entire
projects on the previous version, with no real backward compatibility, reminds
me of the Visual Basic days of Microsoft.

How can you possibly expect acceptance after 5 years?

~~~
viraptor
Out of interest, what are you relying on that's not available?

There were various big missing pieces I remember (database drivers, then web
frameworks, then scipy). The last big one remaining is twisted. (and
fortunately there are not that many big twisted applications around) But
otherwise, I haven't run into any py3 issues lately.

