Just one week shy of Christmas 2008, the Python world saw the release of version 3 of Python. Big deal, eh? Well ... it turns out it was and is, as Python 3 is the first major release of Python designed from the get-go to be incompatible with prior versions of the language.

With the latest major Python release, creator Guido van Rossum saw the opportunity to tidy up his famous scripting language. What is different about Python 3.0? In this article, I offer some highlights for Python programmers who are thinking about making the switch to 3.x.

The company is beefing up its support for the dynamic language with the hiring of two leading Python developers.

Python 2.7 (powerful dynamic programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains) is scheduled to be the last major version in the 2.x series before it moves into an extended maintenance period.

Python 3000 (a.k.a. "Py3k", and released as Python 3.0) 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.

It may seem like Python is just another scripting language, but know that when you are using Linux, the chances are there is some Python code working backstage helping you. Among other things, this article looks into the versatile nature of Python and its many uses…

"Python is an interpreted programming language created by Guido van Rossum in 1990. Python is fully dynamically typed and uses automatic memory management; it is thus similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, Smalltalk, and Tcl. Python is developed as an open source project, managed by the non-profit Python Software Foundation..."

This week Python 3.0 was released, and it represents one of those rare instances: Python 3.0 was designed to clear up a lot of now-inertial legacy issues with the Python language and figure out good ways to do things now instead of unquestioningly sticking with what seemed like good ways (or, more often, the least painful ways) to do things five or ten years ago.

The Python developers have published the first release candidate for Python 2.6.5, addressing nineteen issues in the Python core and over fifty library issues