Dreams

My Python dreams, and my reasons for them.

The community

No judgment or ridicule
Community open-mindedness
More art (requires the previous two)
More creative uses of Python (requires the previous three)
Welcome all developers from all backgrounds
For Pycon to come to Pittsburgh, PA 😃

The language

No more Python 2 vs 3

This, hands down, is the most common reason I see new developers looking past Python.

The polarized nature of this debate is distracting. It's possibly the most damaging decision the Python community has ever been faced with, but it's also a reality and we need to figure out a sensible solution. This requires some creative thinking.

I personally feel the effort spent forcing people to upgrade is a lost cause. It's swimming upstream. It's wasting energy. It's also unrealistic to expect the open-source community to embrace such a giant leap all at once.

Even though I acknowledge Python 3 is a better language, there's still not a compelling reason to make a full jump. Worse, even if there was a compelling reason, you still can't force it to happen. It's the equivalent to switching to a new language. It's also complicating some very respectable projects. Instead, we need to continue to slowly back-port Python 3 to Python 2. Let people naturally evolve and upgrade at their own pace (read: by how much extra time they have). Eventually, the Python 2 / 3 gap will be closed and devs can then make that final step to 3. No jumping necessary.
Npm-like packaging system

When new people look to Python, this is a close 2nd for why they decide not to dive in. The packaging system is overwhelming and an unnecessary obstacle. Even though virtualenv helps and even becomes easy after a while, it's still over-complicated and adds a hoop to the daily routine.

In comparison, Node has always been an extremely pleasant experience. It has always worked seamlessly without issue. More specifically, it's instant (npm install x), self-contained (everything installs locally), and there's no hoops to jump through to simply start hacking on a different project.
PyPy by default

PyPy is awesome. And fast. Enough said.
Python in the browser

Update: Looks like there's promise with PyPy.js 😄 (Pycon video)

A lot of what I do these days is web development. Because of this, I've slowly been migrating to JavaScript. It's been a fragmented experience compared to the thoughtfulness of Python data types, literals, and other out-of-the-box language features that cover most daily tasks well.

However, because JavaScript is maturing (EcmaScript 6, which I actually enjoy quite a bit!), and because it's still the only practical option for working in the browser, JavaScript is inevitable. Browsers are improving daily, and tools like Angular and Ember make rich web application development extremely approachable. Services like Firebase remove the need for server code entirely. More importantly, browsers still have the most reach today, and we need to adapt. I've personally been adapting in my choice of language. However, if Python adapted instead of myself, I'd be more than happy to stay.

Don't get me wrong. Flask and Requests are still an absolute joy to use. Today's JavaScript frameworks don't even come close. However, the JavaScript frameworks are getting better. There will be fewer and fewer reasons to use Python on the backend. I truly believe if we want Python to be relevant for web, we need more than server-side improvements. We need client-side Python.

Bonus

The return of the print statement

I know, I know. Humor me, I'm dreaming. This feature was always a beautiful part of the Python language to me though.

Also, the print statement makes teaching a much more pleasant experience for everyone involved. No more explaining to the student why they need to adhere to the strict nature of parentheses. Save that for more advanced topics like writing and calling functions. The absolute minimal syntax is why I keep using Python 2 for an introduction to programming. It's minor in the day-to-day, but when teaching someone who has no prior experience, the syntax errors are indeed frustrating.

Python has always been in favor of readability and dev experience. It seems odd that in this case, simplifying the language's definition is more important. Most people don't care about that. (Except perhaps when you need to print in a lambda. But why not introduce an os.out() instead of breaking language compatibility?)

Closing thoughts

I recognize that these are impossible dreams. Even borderline controversial in the Python community. However these are my dreams.

If you share the same dream, feel free to reach out on Twitter.

Kennith, thank you for this outlet. The simplicity of this repo is profound, and I've enjoyed reading the wishes of others. 😃

Update: Shared dreams

Here's some dreams I didn't even know I had until reading what others had to say.

Pattern matching like rust (thikonom)
Native distributables (rosarior)
go fmt (iandanforth)