No, the community is stupid and wrong. My machine learning professor (actual professor, not a teaching assistant) only used Python 2 in 2017. Imagine how many people had their opinions shaped by someone like them.
> … it is: never do this.
By that standard, we would never get things like angular 2 or Raku.
Would it be better if we renamed Python 3 to some other name and pretended it was a completely new language?
Quite possibly yes? It doesn't run python2 code, it can't be inter-linked with python2 code, so is it really the same language? The hybrid dialect that works in both does exist but you have to have compatibility shims in a few places.
By comparison, most C compilers will let you use C89 and C17 code in the same project provided you set the compiler options, and C# provided the "netstandard" target for libraries to smooth the transition between Framework and Core runtimes.
Sometimes.
I mean, Russ basically said that about all the work people were doing on the golang package manager and did his own thing, and it worked out. Good job! Sometimes, a smart person can do something that is better when they're deeply steeped in the domain.
> No, the community is stupid.
I personally find that most communities have a lot of very clever, very thoughtful people in them, and if you listen, you can learn a lot from them.
Just because they don't agree with you, doesn't make them stupid.
I think that its basic respect to listen to your community, acknowledge them and think about what they say, even if you go your own way.
...but, if you (as a maintainer) just think they (your community of users) are just a bunch of idiots, do whatever you like. They are idiots if they hang around in a community like that.
However, I am firmly in the Python 3 camp. It is a better language (all the newfangled bullshit notwithstanding).