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I've been considering learning Python as a means of getting insight into
OO thinking. I have been reluctant to by the snake or rat books because
I have read that future versions of Python -- mayber even versions as
early as later this year -- will be radicaly different and in some ways
backwards incompatible. I ask myself if it's worthwhile to learn it one
way if it will change so quickly. Does anyone have insight as to how
much it's _really_ going to change...?

Phil Voris wrote:
>I've been considering learning Python as a means of getting insight into
>OO thinking. I have been reluctant to by the snake or rat books because
>I have read that future versions of Python -- mayber even versions as
>early as later this year -- will be radicaly different and in some ways
>backwards incompatible. I ask myself if it's worthwhile to learn it one
>way if it will change so quickly. Does anyone have insight as to how
>much it's _really_ going to change...?

Well, I'd use my crystal ball to tell you, but the proximity to Guido's
time machine has caused it to show me Dan Quayle as president, so you
know you just can't trust it! <wink>

Seriously, while Python2 is bantied around a lot, it's still stuck somewhere
in the flying Dutchman's head, and nobody else really know what will
change. Having said that, I'm willing ot bet nothing Earth shattering
will occur, a lot of niggling problems will be fixed, some new "optional"
features (maybe pseudo-static types for performance) will reappear,
the libraries might be reoganized (see Paul Prescod's thread on hierarchical
packages), etc etc, but I don't htink you're going to see:

* Curly braces
* 1/2 = 0.5 :-)

Seriously, the basic syntax and structure won't change... you'll be able to
take all knowledge and work with it... there will just be some small
adjustments to things here and there. This won't be like your standard
Java x.x.1->x.x.2 release where everything changes, and 1->2 where nothing
significant happens :-)

Chris
--
| Christopher Petrilli ``Television is bubble-gum for
| petrilli@amber.org the mind.''-Frank Lloyd Wright

In article <v04003a00b351d11d0329@[195.180.62.188]>
peter.sommerfeld@gmx.de "Peter Sommerfeld" writes:
> Phil Voris wrote:
> >I've been considering learning Python as a means of getting insight into
> >OO thinking. I have been reluctant to by the snake or rat books because
> >I have read that future versions of Python -- mayber even versions as
> >early as later this year -- will be radicaly different and in some ways
> >backwards incompatible. I ask myself if it's worthwhile to learn it one
> >way if it will change so quickly. Does anyone have insight as to how
> >much it's _really_ going to change...?
>
> Phil,
> forget about this. 1.5.2 (windows) has just been released. and next will be
> the backward compatible version 1.6 (+ a few minor releases). Version 2.0
> will then probably change the object model. But this is far away, lets say
> 3 to 5 years (who knows?). And Python will still be Python ...

If 2.0 changes the object model in way that cause serious
incompatibilities, perhaps it should be called something other
than Python.

(Although I imagine reasonable speed improvements could be done in
a way that doesn't break existing code -- for example there could be
a keyword ``static'' which when applied to a class means that instances
of that class can't create new instance variablres at run time. This
would mean that accessing self.someVariable wouldn't involve a
hashtable lookup, just an index in an array.

--
Phil Hunt....philh@vision25.demon.co.uk

On Sun, 02 May 99 13:46:26 GMT, philh@vision25.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
declaimed the following in comp.lang.python:


> If 2.0 changes the object model in way that cause serious
> incompatibilities, perhaps it should be called something other
> than Python.
>
May I nominate "S.P.A.M" (Severe Python Anomaly Maker)

--
> ============================================================== <
> wlfraed@ix.netcom.com | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG <
> wulfraed@dm.net | Bestiaria Support Staff <
> ============================================================== <
> Bestiaria Home Page: http://www.beastie.dm.net/ <
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Dennis Lee Bieber wrote in message <372cf32f.20384465@nntp.ix.netcom.com>...

>On Sun, 02 May 99 13:46:26 GMT, philh@vision25.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
>declaimed the following in comp.lang.python:
>
>> If 2.0 changes the object model in way that cause serious
>> incompatibilities, perhaps it should be called something other
>> than Python.
>>
> May I nominate "S.P.A.M" (Severe Python Anomaly Maker)

How about "Fawlty"?

--
Angus Rodgers --Expel Norse invaders from my e-mail address--
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