IMO, the more complex a system is, the more fragile it tends to become. The same is true for programming languages. Features will clash with each other. You'll end up having 10 different ways to achieve the same thing, and it won't be obvious which direction to go.
Furthermore, I did my grad studies in compilers. I've thought about writing an optimizing JIT for Python. I really feel like CPython is needlessly slow, and it's kind of embarassing, in an age where single-core performance is reaching a plateau, to waste so many CPU cycles interpreting a language. We have the technology to do much better. However, the fact that Python is a fast moving target makes it very difficult to catch up. If Python were a smaller, more stable language, this wouldn't be so difficult.
I disagree with this, which is precisely why I prefer feature rich languages like Java or better yet Kotlin. It doesn't get much more readable than something like:
users.asSequence()
.filter { it.lastName.startsWith("S") }
.sortedBy { it.lastName }
.take(3)
sorted((u for u in users
if u.last_name.startswith("S")),
key=lambda u: u.last_name
)[:3]
sorted((u for u in users
if last_name(u).startswith("S")),
key=last_name
)[:3]
Though I will conceed that I also find the fluent interface variant nicer.
users.apply {
asSequence()
filter { it.lastName.startsWith("S")
sortedBy { it.lastName }
take(3)
}
Many have tried and failed, Google and Dropbox to name a couple, and countless other attempts.
That's not universally true. C# has more features than Java but is generally easier to read and the intent of the code is easier to follow. The lack of features, like properties or unsigned integers, leads to Java coders creating much more convoluted solutions.
If languages with less features were universally better we would all be using C and BASIC for everything.
I can plainly see how these changes will actually make my code cleaner and more obvious while saving me keystrokes.
I also don't think these changes are very drastic. They're opt-in, doesn't break anything and looks to lead to cleaner code. I love the walrus operator (not so sure about the name, but hey. C++ is getting the spaceship operator... As has been said, naming things is hard). To me, the change of print from a statement to a function has been the hardest Python chamge over the years. Just too much mental momentum. Even though ive been on Python 3 for years, I still make the mistake of trying to use it as a statement. That said, I think it was the right (if painful) move.
I don't speak for everyone over 35, just myself.
Anecdote : i'm fairly young, but i've been involved with python long enough and traveled to enough pycons to be a bit jaded with regards to change within the language.
I'm fairly certain it's only due to the additional cognitive load that's thrust upon me when I must learn a new nuance to a skill that I already considered myself proficient at.
in other words : i'm resistant to change because i'm lazy, and because it (the language, and the way I did things previously) works for me. Both reasons are selfish and invalid, to a degree.