That's exactly the point: some software will never be ported. That's why is such a bad idea for languages to create a break point like the geniuses of Python decided to do.
No, there's an implicit assumption that you need to do maintainance on software you run. People who don't budget for it are just denying reality.
There's 0 difference between the states that were putting a call out for COBOL programmers to deal with their disaster of an unemployment system and the professor running some python script from 2003. Their lack of responsible ownership is their own fault.
Your comparison couldn't be worse. COBOL is having problems not because of the language, but because of the code created 50 years ago. For all its disadvantages, COBOL is in fact one of the most successful languages of all time because it has allowed businesses to run their software for the last 50 years. That's why it won't go away, even though no one in their sane mind would create even a new line of software in COBOL.
Python decided instead that their customers were of no value, and all the millions of lines of existing Python shouldn't continue to run, even though it would be trivial for them to continue supporting 2.x syntax along with 3.x. I think it is one of the most insane decisions ever made by a mainstream programming language.
There are still new Cobol versions being released (I think the current standard is Cobol 2018), along with new tooling, presumably because it's used by companies that care about maintenance even if they are unwilling/unable to switch to a more popular language. Compare that with Python 2 where you hear about lots of companies complaining about end-of-life issues or missing migration tools, yet somehow none of them seem willing to do anything about it.
> C came into being in the years 1969-1973, in parallel with the early development of the Unix operating system; the most creative period occurred during 1972. Another spate of changes peaked between 1977 and 1979
But lets make you a favour and consider 1972, it makes C a 48 years old systems programming language, only surpassed by NEWP (1961) as oldest systems programming language still in use in 2021.
Maybe it is about time to start talking about C the same way people talk about COBOL.
Your comment doesn't feel like it's doing me any favours. It makes me feel like not commenting on HN any more.
My last interaction, which felt similar, and put me off commenting for a while, was with someone who claimed that "most concert pianists and serious competitors have absolutely gigantic hands" then moved the goalposts around so they could be Right.
It's true that you need to budget for maintenance. It is a serious societal problem that maintenance is underfunded.
But that means that any language revision needs to work hard at making the transition easy and incremental. 2to3 was and is laughable; at no point was it a reasonable solution.
It's okay to say "we need maintenance money". But no one has an unlimited budget. People complain about the 2->3 transition because (1) it was extraordinarily steep, (2) was not justified, (3) its huge costs are repeatedly denied.
