[jhall1468]

I mean, it seems like you are suggesting 3 incremental non-backwards compatible changes. I'm not sure how that's better. Nobody is going to sign on to the first two, so you end up with the exact same situation we have now, but took a more complex approach to get there.

[generationP]

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. I know a big python2 codebase (SageMath) that has been "close" to python3 adaption for several times within the last 5 years but had to call it off every time because something came in the way. By the time the next serious attempt was started, lots of the changes had rotten. Anything that could be done incrementally (python 2.7.5, from-future imports, prints with parentheses) has been done long ago.