Software developers should avoid traumatic changes

Breaking changes in software ecosystems can cause lasting community trauma, categorized as 'strong' (code stops working) or 'weak' (code becomes unidiomatic). Python 3's migration exemplifies strong trauma, while asyncio's introduction represents weak trauma by rendering large portions of the ecosystem idiomatically obsolete without actually breaking anything. The slow rot caused by weak traumatic changes is harder to spot but equally damaging over time. The post urges language and framework designers to think carefully before introducing such changes, citing Go generics as a potential future example.