AFAIK, Python folks are experiencing something different: they have two incompatible languages which can't talk to each other, that's why they have to port code

AFAIK, Python folks are experiencing something different: they have two incompatible languages which can't talk to each other, that's why they have to port code from Python 2 to 3. OTOH, no matter how bad I think about Perl, it seems Perl folks are doing fine instead, regarding backward compatibility of version 6 toward 5 (version 6 will have a compatibility mode). Ehi! If I'm not mistaken, ISE Eiffel will happily compile and link both Eiffel and C++ code. I agree that old code is sacred and I agree that handling backward compatibility is not an easy task, but carrying decades old baggage isn't a solution either, if you ask me. I remember how one day while I was coding in C++ and I realized how much baggage I was carrying in my mind at each step while writing code. Of course programmers will not switch to the new standard if it does not provide enough advantages, but then history shows that people are willing to even switch languages if their current one becomes an unmanageable mess. As PG said in an essay of his, different versions of a language are different languages. Then just treat them as such.