<i>why do you prefer `print` to be a statement</i><p>The best quip I&#x27;ve seen about this is:<p><pre><code>   Python 3 broke &quot;hello, world&quot;.
</code></pre>
I just tried, and the &quot;hello, world&quot; program from K&amp;R still compiles and runs.<p>The article claimed that Guido started Python back in 1989. Wiki tells me that Python 3 was released in 2008. So, if after nearly 20 years of existence, you break <i>the quintessential program</i> of your (or rather any) computer language, then, ipso facto, you&#x27;ve just abandoned your current language and switched to a new one.<p>Others have mentioned that the print statement could have been retained, while also allowing a function. I would have preferred that. Not &quot;the Python way&quot; of having one way to do something, but there&#x27;s also backward compatibility to consider.