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On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> wrote:

So it would be really great if any updates to shutils (and other stdlib packages) to support the new protocol be back-ported.

Not if they change the language.

we're not talking about language changes here -- we are talking about updates to the stdlib.

Eric wrote:

The problem is that when someone writes code a year from now and tests it under Python 3.6.2, then a customer of theirs finds it doesn't work in 3.6.1\. This will happen if 3.6.2 supports Path parameters to functions that 3.6.1 does not.

This does, of course apply to the stdlib -- not just the language.

We've burned ourselves before with this, most famously with True and False in 2.2.1: http://python-history.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-history-of-bool-true-and-false.html

I'd argue that adding three built-ins is a much bigger deal than enhancing a subset of one standard package -- not that the same issues wouldn't arise.

I think it's still worth, but I can certainly see why it might not be.

Too bad we didn't do a bit more testing for completely when it was beta....

-CHB

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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