[Python-Dev] Re: patchlevel.h (original) (raw)

Jack Jansen jack@oratrix.nl
Fri, 26 Oct 2001 12:25:39 +0200

> Maybe I should start using the release branch for Mac releases after you are > done with it for the Unix/Windows release. As there is an r22b1 tag to point > to the exact revision used for the release there should be no adverse > consequences. What do you think?

As before, I think there should be only a single 2.2b1 release. If you need to provide binaries, use what was released in the 2.2b1 source distribution (which is not the Unix release, it is the source distribution).

Martin, while I completely agree with you in principle, in practice this isn't possible. When the release branch is made there's usually a flurry of minor fixes, and these are almost guaranteed to break something on the mac. Tiny things, like missing casts, but breaks nonetheless. Moreover, the "release loop" is now about 24 hours long, according to PEP101, and even extending it seriously (like to about a week) still wouldn't guarantee that I could react timely. Not only am I 6 hours away from the unix/win release folks, but I also have a paying job that is less and less MacPython-related, so I can't firmly commit myself.

And it has happened to me already (twice, I think) that there was a showstopper bug on the Mac that has caused me to either be very late with a release or skip one altogether. This happens on the Mac more often than on Unix/Windows, because MacPython relies on a third party unix I/O emulation library.

-- Jack Jansen | ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com | ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ www.cwi.nl/~jack | see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm