Very much this. It's a separate language that, if it hadn't been pushed by BDFL and co., if it had appeared as an independent project (like e.g. Stackless Pyth

Very much this. It's a separate language that, if it hadn't been pushed by BDFL and co., if it had appeared as an independent project (like e.g. Stackless Python or something), would have had to live or die on its own merits. - - - - An additional aspect that I see as an old Python user is the "poisoning of the well" of the inclusive and welcoming spirit of the community. We (I'm speaking as a Pythonista here) have had problems with this in the past (remember how grouchy effbot could be? He's a sweet person IRL though.) We made great progress and got a lot of acceptance in the educational and academic worlds. Now just read this very thread and you'll find so many people making curt dismissive comments to folks who aren't on board with Python 3. I still love and respect GvR (I once, with his permission, gave him a hug!) even though I think he messed up with this 2->3 business (and in any event, the drama around language innovation eventually pushed him to resign, as we all know.) He's a human being. And a pretty good one. I guess what I'm trying to say is Python 3 won. Let us (all of us) be gracious about it.