This should be brought up on the python-3000 list; I'm moving it there using a Bcc to python-ideas.
To some extent it is up to the vendors who distribute binaries -- they decide what to call it. Perhaps we should only install "python3.0" and not "python". That is a valid choice already and always has been (python2.1, python2.2, etc. are always installed by default, "python" is just a convenient alias). I think that worries about Python becoming the laughingstock of the language world are highly exaggerated. The post you refer to sounds to me like the typical cynical one-liner from someone who doesn't really care, not about a position of someone who is influential in the world of language users. --Guido PS. Java is the VB of this decare. On Feb 1, 2008 10:41 PM, Ralf W. Grosse-Kunstleve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is regarding the transition to Python 3, and the confusion caused > by using the same executable name for two incompatible interpreters. > The consequences of this struck me today when I saw this message > appear on an important bulletin board for the field I'm working in: > > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1562 > > This posting is from a heavy-weight in the field (lookup his name with > Google or better The Web of Science). Basically he's suggesting to forget > about Python because it is an unreliable environment. > > There is also this reply calling the original posting "alarmist": > > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1464 > > And this one making fun of the whole thing: > > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0802&L=ccp4bb&T=0&F=&S=&P=1675 > > I interpret these messages as early signs of an imminent decade of confusion. > Therefore my plea: > > PLEASE GIVE THE PYTHON 3 EXECUTABLE A DIFFERENT NAME AND THE SCRIPTS > A DIFFERENT EXTENSION. > > It will be a terrible political setback otherwise. Many people don't > *want* to understand even if they could. Mixing up two incompatible > interpreters under one name will give them plenty of ammunition for > cheap jokes and for defending their not-invented-here-or-before-I-was-16 > attitude. > > Ralf > > P.S.: My wife is from Hungary. It seems all men in Hungary have to > have one of exactly three names: Andras, Laszlo, or Balazs. I never > know whom she's talking about... > > > > _______________________________________________ > Python-ideas mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas > -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
