>For the good of any computer language, old versions need to eventually die off.
I would say instead: for any good computer language, new versions need to retain compatibility with old versions. Every single system I run has python 2.7 (including my brand new Macbook running latest OS X). Luckily I don't need numpy, and I can probably do without python at all if I have to.
Compare to perl: I can run old perl scripts on basically any system without having to worry about it breaking. I do all of my server scripting in perl for this reason.
I would say instead: for any good computer language, new versions need to retain compatibility with old versions. Every single system I run has python 2.7 (including my brand new Macbook running latest OS X). Luckily I don't need numpy, and I can probably do without python at all if I have to.
Compare to perl: I can run old perl scripts on basically any system without having to worry about it breaking. I do all of my server scripting in perl for this reason.