Guido Uses My Birthday to Talk About Python's Future

Not really, of course. He didn't even know it was my birthday. From Dr. Dobb's:

"""June 20, 2007

Guido van Rossum Posts Python Status Update

Guido van Rossum has posted a status update on progress toward the 3.0 version of Python.

Python creator Guido van Rossum has posted a summary of progress in the "Python 3000 project," which is the code name for Python 3.0. The release schedule has slipped by two months, with a proposed first alpha now slated for the end of August. The final release is scheduled for one year from then.

In his update, he lays out an eight-step plan for developers who need to transition their code from Python 2.6 to Python 3.0. Changes between the two versions will break backward compatibility, so transition is not trivial. A tool to convert Python 2.6 syntax to Python 3.0 syntax exists.

Van Rossum then provides a laundry list of language changes, including a new I/O library, new print() and format() functions, and many changes to the class and type system, including class decorators and a new metaclass syntax.

The full posting can be found here."""

Good for Guido. I think that a number of interested parties managed to convince hin of the sincerity of their migration concerns at PyCon earlier this year, and it looks as though Guido has taken these concerns on board.