| Python 3 was never "in limbo". From the very start its goals were clear. Yes, it took some time to implement them, but this was done rather efficiently and quickly. Unless you were using one of a handful of libraries that didn't put forth the effort to be compatible with Python 3, it was very easily to adopt Python 3 early on, and to use it effectively. I worked with a group that adopted Python 3 relatively soon after its official release. This would've been around early 2009. We developed a number of large systems using Python 3, without any major problems. Sure, we ran into bugs now and then, but we reported them and they were fixed soon enough. We helped port some libraries to Python 3. We didn't regret the decision to go with Python 3 then, and the last I talked to people still involved with those projects, they don't regret the choice now. They're glad that their millions of lines of code are targeting Python 3, which is without doubt the future of the Python language at this point. I don't know why people such as yourself continue to portray Python 3 as a "disaster", when all of the evidence and much of the experience with it shows the complete opposite to be true. It was a smooth transition for Python 2 users who didn't want to or need to upgrade. It was a smooth transition for Python 3 early adopters. It's a rather smooth transition now for Python 2 users who want to use Python 3. "Disaster" just isn't the sort of term to describe a transition that goes well for all involved. |
You're speaking in the past tense about a present problem. Many large projects that would like to migrate to Python 3 cannot because the library support isn't there.
This is in no way meant to disparage the motivations that led to Python 3, because it's better in every way than its predecessor. Only that the transition problems are still present, and the larger the project, the more difficult the transition.
Sage (http://www.sagemath.org/), a project I'm involved in, is just one example -- a large, complex project, it relies on dozens of mathematical and other libraries, and to transition to Python 3, all the libraries would have to be available in Python 3 versions -- even one exception would prevent the transition.
It's safe to say that everyone involved would like to see a transition to Python 3. But it's not possible, and for the foreseeable future it's not even likely.