31 Dec
2021
31 Dec
'21
7:32 p.m.
On 31 Dec 2021 16:55 +1100, from robpike(a)gmail.com (Rob Pike):
And of course you're right, but we've known
how to roll out breaking
changes in software for a very long time now. And we do so often. Few Unix
programs from the past would compile and run today without being updated to
"modern" interfaces and compilers.
I believe it could be done, and I believe it should be done. Rolled out
carefully and explained well it would please far more than it offends, and
is arguably far closer to correct than the current situation.
Seems to me that we have a decent, relatively current case study of
this with Python 2 vs Python 3.
Which is probably a good bit easier actually, because maintaining the
ability to run Python 2 applications while introducing the ability to
run Python 3 applications is likely easier than introducing changes to
how something as relatively fundamental as how ".." behaves in paths
while at the same time maintaining backwards compatibility with the
old behavior, where different users and different applications on the
same system might very well expect different behavior...
--
Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael(a)kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”