[wirrbel]

The best way would be to release a python 2.9 which incorporates most of the changes from 2 to 3 but the unicode change.

The Δ between Python 2 and Python 3 was just too wide. Even with breaking changes, with a small Δ people will just migrate eventually. Migrating projects drag each other over the "barrier" just like water in a hose can be sucked over a wall.

The issue definitely was not the print command, but other things such as ``iteritems()``, etc - by themselves not much to keep you from migrating, but there is a pile of these boring changes next to the big one (unicode).

I think Guido overestimated the appeal of the new unicode handling and underestimated how resentful people are to change. I figure that at least 1/4 of programmers are actually very opposed to each and every migration and a new version has to have enough incentives to counterbalance this built-in conservativeness.