> Python2 and Python3 are practically speaking different languages - different syntax, different semantics, different libraries, and a different userbase. Yes,

> Python2 and Python3 are practically speaking different languages - different syntax, different semantics, different libraries, and a different userbase. Yes, and tools and infractstructure should account for that: Python 2 and Python 3 should use different file extensions, and libraries written for python 2 should not just adapt to Python 3 and break backward compatibility, but come _at least_ as a new major version - better with a different library name, as Go lang requires. And still it would have been possible to support Unicode in python 3 without breaking backwards compatibility. It was possible to support in Common Lisp which was defined as a ANSI standard in 1994, and Common Lisp implementations like SBCL or Schemes compile to far faster code than C Python (while providing many of its flow control affordances, like list comprehensions, or a numeric tower). Why should it not be possible for Python? Apart from the developers not wanting to do it?