Yes. "from __future__ import ..." could have had "from __past__ import ..." or some other such 1-line mechanism to maintain compatibility. Before the switch

Yes. "from __future__ import ..." could have had "from __past__ import ..." or some other such 1-line mechanism to maintain compatibility. Before the switch to P3, I argued vehemently with (some of) The Powers that Be that doing this was unnecessary and would break the community. The argument was, "Don't worry, P3 is so much better, people will want to change over." Well, yeah, maybe. Personally, I ignored P3 until 3.6 arrived. THAT was enough of a jump to abandon P2.