[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip@pobox.com
Mon, 8 Apr 2002 12:36:06 -0500

"Guido" == Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

>> I don't know if I understand what you're getting at here.  I think
>> that 2.x.a -> 2.x.b should be relatively stable, certainly if x is
>> odd.  Less so if x is even, but most of the time not dramatically so.

Guido> Ehm, haven't you got that backwards?  I did "uname -a" and my
Guido> kernel version is 2.4.9, which would suggest that even minor
Guido> numbers are stable for Linux.  And you just agreed that we should
Guido> do the same for Python.

2.4.x is the stable Linux kernel. People had been talking about Python 2.1.x as the "Garth" (we fear change) series. I was simply going along with that theme.

>> (One way to accomplish this would be to have a standard patch file
>> whose version numbers are twiddled, probably by a script, and which
>> is then applied from the top of the source tree.)

Guido> You'd still have to watch it though.

Yes, but I suspect generating a new version of that diff file shouldn't be too difficult on the occasions where some new location containing a version number pops up.

Skip