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Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8

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On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> Converting "print spam" to "print(spam)" is the trivial part of it. The
> biggest change between Python 2.x and 3.x is the bytes to Unicode shift,
> and that is *not trivial*. Python 2.x tries very hard to make bytes and
> strings interoperate even when doing so is the wrong thing to do. So
> there is a lot of Python 2 code that is *broken* with respect to strings,
> but *seems okay* so long as you only test it using pure ASCII. Python 3
> no longer tries to hide the difference, it forces you to confront the
> fact that bytes and strings are not the same. To people raised on ASCII-
> only programming standards, that's a huge paradigm shift, and a confusing
> one. There's a lot to learn, a lot of pain if you don't learn it, and
> there can be a lot of effort needed to migrate string code to Python 3.

Has anyone ever had the same "oh great, now I have to push everyone
through a paradigm shift" feeling about anything else? The only one I
can think of is shifting my whole family off Windows file sharing
(just accessing files everywhere) onto wholesale use of source control
(have a local copy, and push your changes).

> (Depending on what your code actually does. It is remarkable just how
> much string code you can write that works identically in 2.x and 3.x.
> Basic string handling remains basic in both.)

With PEP 461 (slated for 3.5), that's going to get even easier. Not
only will a simple double-quoted string "do the right thing" on both
platforms, but both b"binary" and u"unicode" will support the same
percent-formatting as well. But you do have to limit your definition
of "2.x"; a lot of that commonality is the result of deliberate
design, and NOT just "oh hey look it works", which means that 2.4 and
3.4 are very different. I respect and do not envy those who have to
support both RHEL and Arch...

ChrisA

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Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Phil Dobbin <phildobbin@gmail.com> - 2014-04-14 20:32 +0100
  Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Mark H Harris <harrismh777@gmail.com> - 2014-04-15 13:32 -0500
    Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Novocastrian_Nomad <gregory.j.baker@gmail.com> - 2014-04-15 12:37 -0700
      Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Mark H Harris <harrismh777@gmail.com> - 2014-04-15 14:54 -0500
        Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-04-15 17:02 -0400
          Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Mark H Harris <harrismh777@gmail.com> - 2014-04-15 17:17 -0500
        Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2014-04-15 17:03 -0400
        Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Andrew Berg <aberg010@my.hennepintech.edu> - 2014-04-15 16:38 -0500
        Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-04-16 02:51 +0000
          Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-16 16:14 +1000
    Re: Martijn Faassen: The Call of Python 2.8 Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-04-15 15:37 -0400

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