2 ms·

Did they break stuff? One of the differences is that Python is versioned, so you should be capable of running your current version without issues and then updat

by devjab 3y ago

Did they break stuff? One of the differences is that Python is versioned, so you should be capable of running your current version without issues and then update when you’re ready. While JavaScript itself is backwards compatible, in a few cases beyond good reason, it’s not really backwards compatible for most of its modern use cases. Node isn’t backwards compatible and neither is TypeScript, and neither are many frameworks as you point out. I do agree that making breaking changes shouldn’t become a thing, but at some points you also have to move things forward. That being said, I do think this particular case is a shift in philosophy more so than a step forward, since this is a far more opinionated change than what may have been the case previously in Python.

Kwpolska 3y ago
You may not always be in control of the Python version, for example if you depend on the Python provided by your OS. You may also want to use a newer Python version for its features, support (bugfixes) and libraries, so you'll need to rewrite things. Java also has versions, but they generally don't remove things. You can keep your ugly code and use the latest version of the language.
kobalsky 3y ago
> Did they break stuff? One of the differences is that Python is versioned, so you should be capable of running your current version without issues and then update when you’re ready. the problem is that the amount of asinine changes and unnecessary shuffling of standard libraries is so consistent that a good number of libraries have a grid of compatibility with different Python versions. So version 1.1.0 is compatibe python 3.8, 3.9 and 3.10 and version 1.2.0 is compatible with python => 3.11 (until the next breaking change is introduced), you have to pick and choose depending on which python version you are using, and sometimes you have impossible combinations and pip enters an almost never ending loop trying to find combinations of libraries that work with each other. I've been developing, packaging and creating our own deployment tooling since python 2.2 and I cannot believe how Python devs are still shuffling stuff around instead of working on fixing package management.

by devjab 3y ago

Kwpolska 3y ago

You may not always be in control of the Python version, for example if you depend on the Python provided by your OS. You may also want to use a newer Python version for its features, support (bugfixes) and libraries, so you'll need to rewrite things. Java also has versions, but they generally don't remove things. You can keep your ugly code and use the latest version of the language.

kobalsky 3y ago

> Did they break stuff? One of the differences is that Python is versioned, so you should be capable of running your current version without issues and then update when you’re ready. the problem is that the amount of asinine changes and unnecessary shuffling of standard libraries is so consistent that a good number of libraries have a grid of compatibility with different Python versions. So version 1.1.0 is compatibe python 3.8, 3.9 and 3.10 and version 1.2.0 is compatible with python => 3.11 (until the next breaking change is introduced), you have to pick and choose depending on which python version you are using, and sometimes you have impossible combinations and pip enters an almost never ending loop trying to find combinations of libraries that work with each other. I've been developing, packaging and creating our own deployment tooling since python 2.2 and I cannot believe how Python devs are still shuffling stuff around instead of working on fixing package management.