Topic to complain about AI

why 5 is more recent than 6

Perhaps we should turn it all the way up to 11.

And this, amongst other reasons, is why this branch of the OS should be called “NCOS”.

Probably better that than “DKOS” which is what I call it when I’m in a bad mood.

[not to mention the whole Python 2 vs 3 thing]

This all says a lot about the lack of planning, lack of foresight, and lack of respect for users that is increasingly endemic in the software industry.

Yes the Python 2 to 3 transition was painful (although I’ve been paid quite well for what must be coming up to a million lines converted), but Python 2 had reached a dead end and changes needed to be made to keep it fit for purpose when dealing with vastly larger data than first envisioned, and a multi-lingual world. You could argue they should have foreseen multi gigabyte memory and Unicode being crucial in 2000, or you could argue they retained compatibility with a horrible bodges that wouldn’t have required people to change code, and then performed very badly in the real world.

However, it would be better to think of the very close parallels with RISC OS, like Python 2 it has reached the end of the road, with intractable problems in many areas (wont run on modern chips, doesn’t take advantage of multiple cores, Unicode not supported throughout) that can’t be addressed in a fully backwards compatible way, and it needs an even more radical re-write than Python 3.

Where the parallel stops is the Python world didn’t wait until the vast majority of the Python 2 users had given up on it and gone elsewhere before realising they needed Python 3. Version 3 was released in 2008, and while I’m still porting Python 2 almost 5 years after support was dropped in 2020, Python 3 is being actively developed, and is still getting better and faster with each release. This has helped it gain a vast following, with developers of all skill levels, and is now one of the top (if not the top according to GitHub) languages, which has made all that pain worthwhile.