A Python for Future Generations

Keynote at EuroPython 2017 in Rimini.

1. A Python for Future Generations Armin @mitsuhiko Ronacher
2. Hi, I'm Armin ... and I do Open Source, lots of Python and SaaS Flask Sentry …
3. … and here is where you can find me twitter.com/@mitsuhiko github.com/mitsuhiko lucumr.pocoo.org/
4. ‘raising awareness’
5. the grass is always greener somewhere
6. … what's Python anyway?
7. Python is whatever cpython does
8. behavior & stdlib
9. a + b = ?
10. a.__add__(b) ?
11. type(a).__add__(a, b) ?
12. a.__class__.__add__(a, b) ?
13. they are all not necessarily correct
14. 1 0 LOAD_FAST 0 (a) 3 LOAD_FAST 1 (b) 6 BINARY_ADD
15. which is “obj as num”.add or “obj as sequence”.concat
16. gave us unclear behavior when subclassing builtins
17. there is no “+” operator
18. there is PyNumber_Add and PySequence_Concat
19. does it matter?
20. debatable but … kinda?
21. pypy, jython all copy the quirks because
22. they want high compatibility because
23. users would not use it if it was not compatible because
24. prevents more innovative language changes
25. Python in 30 Years?
26. make the python we use more like the python we teach
27. it's a common story
28. python developers value compatibility
29. distutils implements original setup.py
30. setuptools monkey patches distutils to support Python eggs
31. pip monkey patches setuptools on the fly to manage python packages
32. wheel monkey patches setuptools to build wheels instead of eggs
33. cffi monkey patches setuptools and distutils to build extensions
34. snaek monkey patches cffi to build Rust extension modules
35. the GIL
36. the only reason removing the GIL is hard is backwards compatibility
37. looks like we're not good at breaking compatibility
38. our only attempt was both radical and not radical enough
39. future of “scripting” languages
40. they are here to stay
41. but they will look different
42. standards + ecosystem
43. if we want to be here in 30 years, we need to evolve
44. where we did well
45. interpreter code is readable
46. ease of compilation
47. extensibility
48. flat dependency chains
49. runtime introspection
50. what we should probably do
51. easier and clearer language behavior
52. looking elsewhere
53. JavaScript
54. Rust
55. both are new and modern both learned from mistakes
56. packaging and modules
57. packaging and modules package.json Cargo.toml
58. packaging and modules • metadata is runtime available • by default no code execution on installation • (optionally) multiple versions per library • public vs private / peer dependencies
59. packaging and modules • we're moving away from setup.py install • pip is a separate tool • wheels • multi-version would require metadata access where are we now?
60. packaging and modules • we can steal from others • can target python 3 only if needed realistic change?
61. language standard
62. language standard • javascript: clarify interpreter behavior • simplified language subset? • generally leaner language? • more oversight over language development
63. language standard • maybe micropython and other things can lead the way • community can kill extension modules for CFFI realistic change?
64. unicode
65. unicode utf-8 everywhere wtf-8 where needed
66. unicode • very little guessing • rust: operating system string type • rust: free from utf-8 to os-string and bytes • explicit unicode character APIs • emojis mean no basic plane
67. packaging and modules • we would need to kill string slicing • utf-8 everywhere is straightforward • kill surrogate-escapes for a real os string? realistic change?
68. extension modules
69. extension modules more cffi less libpython
70. extension modules • tricky for things like numpy • generally possible for many uses realistic change?
71. linters & type annotations
72. linters & type annotations babel, eslint, … typescript, flow, …
73. linters & type annotations rustfmt, gofmt, prettier, …
74. linters & type annotations • maybe? • typing in Python 3 might go this way realistic change?
75. what you can do!
76. abuse the language less
77. sys._getframe(N).f_locals['_wat'] = 42
78. class X(dict):
79. stop writing non cffi extensions
80. stop being clever with sys.modules
81. awareness is the first step
82. QA &