It's hard to understand that they could think Python 2 to be the valid choice for this, as though Python 3 was "the future" and things are heading there.

Python 3 is the present, we are there, Python 2 is the past and in 2 short years it will be unsupported and whatever you learned from this resource will need to be re-learned for Python 3 pretty damn quick.

Recommendation to those learning Python: avoid this Google resource and instead use Zed Shaw's "Learn Python 3 The Hard Way" https://learnpythonthehardway.org/python3/

Or you could do things Google's way and then follow up with learning how to use DOS http://people.uncw.edu/pattersone/121/labs/L1_MSDOS_Primer.p... because I believe things are heading that way.

The notion that the Python core devs get to decide when Python 2 should stop being used is not cool.

Under the freedoms provided by Free Software licensing, users who have a need to continue to use Python 2 should be able pool their effort to continue to support Python 2.

There was an effort called Python 2.8 to do this, but the Python Software Foundation made it change its name and I don't recall what the new name is. It's not particularly nice that the thing that's compatible with what was called Python to begin with is the one that got renamed.

This feels kind of entitled, to be honest. The core devs don't owe you indefinite support for your chosen version. Absolutely they get to decide when they want to stop supporting it (and they already gave it a ridiculously extended support lifetime!).

The PSF also owns the "Python" trademark and the whole purpose of trademarks is to prevent confusion about who made something, i.e. exactly the kind of confusion a Python 2.8 that isn't made by the same people who made Python 2.7 would have caused.

The new name, for what it's worth, is Tauthon: https://github.com/naftaliharris/tauthon

Entitled to the name perhaps, but _not_ entitled to indefinite support by the core devs.

> The core devs don't owe you indefinite support for your chosen version. Absolutely they get to decide when they want to stop supporting it (and they already gave it a ridiculously extended support lifetime!).

I agree! I said the users of Python 2 should be able to pool effort to continue to support Python 2.

Yet, there is a lot of sentiment in this thread that whether Python 2 should continue to be used should be tied to whether the Python core devs are still supporting it. Similarly, there is widespread sentiment that e.g. Linux distros should drop Python 2 and packaging Tauthon in its place doesn't even make it to the agenda.

> The PSF also owns the "Python" trademark and the whole purpose of trademarks is to prevent confusion about who made something, i.e. exactly the kind of confusion a Python 2.8 that isn't made by the same people who made Python 2.7 would have caused.

I'm well aware that the PSF is legally entitled to exclude Tauthon from being called Python 2.8. It's still not particularly nice towards the users of the language who bet on Python 2 and who'd benefit from easy discovery of Tauthon.

Imagine if Stroustrup had gone on to develop the language that's in reality called D but insisted that it be called C++ and the language everyone else knows as C++ be renamed if developed further in a backward-compatible way.

Once there is no longer a Python 2.x by the Python core devs to confuse Tauthon with, it's arguably more confusing for Python 2 and Python 3 to share a name but Python 2.x and Tauthon not to. (For clarity, the previous sentence is not a legal argument. I'm well aware that the public who could be confused about names doesn't have standing under trademark law.)

> The new name, for what it's worth, is Tauthon: https://github.com/naftaliharris/tauthon

Thanks.