[Python-Dev] Pymalloc and backward compatibility (original) (raw)

Aahz aahz@pythoncraft.com
Fri, 5 Apr 2002 12:44:55 -0500

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:

Aahz wrote:

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:

Aahz:

Why can't you realistically desupport pre-2.0? Because 1.5.2 is still most commonly found as the default Python, like it or not. I don't care for 1.4, but 1.5.2 support is a MUST. I must be missing something here. We're not talking about an end-user product, we're talking about a developer tool. What's wrong with requiring a Python download for someone who at this point wants to upgrade vim from the system default? The default Python for Mandrake 8.1 (not the most current version), for example, is Python 2.1.1. I don't think Python 1.5.2 is the default Python for anything other than Red Hat at the moment, and even if I'm wrong about that now, it certainly will be true by the time any new version of vim becomes an installed default. Python 1.5.2 is still in active use. Some of the extension writers simply can't drop 1.5.2 because of an active user base still working with it (either because they are using commercial products built on top of 1.5.2 or because they like the speed... Python 2.x is slower than 1.5.2, or because their books still reference the old version). Python's release schedule has changed dramatically over the last few years -- I would expect that the Python 2.0 user base will also last a few more years.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes -- but why is this a problem for vim?

I am not talking about some abstract general case; it looks to me that in this specific case backward compatibility isn't an issue, and I still have not seen any explanation for why I'm wrong.

Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"There are times when effort is important and necessary, but this should not be taken as any kind of moral imperative." --jdecker