Python 3000 or Python 3.0 or Py3kFinal Released, No Matter How You Call It

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 05 Dec 2008

Barely a few days into the month of December and the Python Software Foundation makes the headlines by releasing version 3.0 (or 3000, or 3k) of their Python software application. With Py3K the development team added some new features and made some pretty important changes.

“We are pleased to announce the release of Python 3.0 (final), a new production-ready release. Python 3.0 (a.k.a. "Python 3000" or "Py3k") is a new version of the language that is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed. Also, the standard library has been reorganized in a few prominent places,” said the Python Software Foundation

One question naturally arises: what exactly is new in the 3.0 version, compared to the previous Python 2.6? According to Guido van Rossum, the one who created this programming language, the first thing that you need to know is that Py3k, unlike other versions, is “intentionally backwards incompatible”. Even so, those of you that have used Python in the past will notice that all the changes are meant to remove old and useless features as well as address some annoying bits and pieces in Python (things that users have been complaining about for some time now. You will also notice that Py3k provides much better support for Unicode.

“For full details, you should refer to the documentation for Python 3.0, and/or the many PEPs referenced in the text. If you want to understand the complete implementation and design rationale for a particular feature, PEPs usually have more details than the regular documentation; but note that PEPs usually are not kept up-to-date once a feature has been fully implemented,” says Guido van Rossum.

If you would like to read more about Python or get the software, a download location is available here.


Latest News


Sony's 'Attack of the Blockbusters Sale' Slashes Prices in Half for a Ton of PS4 Games

17 Aug 2017

How Samsung's New T5 Compares to the Old T3 Portable SSD (Infographic)

17 Aug 2017

See all