[bufordsharkley]

The print function is clearly a better, more precise way to handle it, to be sure...

But the print statement was one prominent, attractive way that Python was essentially pseudocode-- its removal seems an improvement from a pedantic sense, but one that seems to run contrary to convenience and (perhaps) the expectations of a beginner.

[TimSAstro]

I disagree about this being worse for beginners - if we're teaching a new programmer about functions, surely a basic print function is a great introduction? Whereas before it was a one-off special case.

[panglott]

As a beginner, I ~hated~ the print statement. The print function had analogous syntax to all other functions, whereas the print statement always seemed to use some kludgy tricks.