[Python-Dev] Draft: 2.3 download page (original) (raw)

Barry Warsaw barry@python.org
27 Jul 2003 12:09:37 -0400

On Sun, 2003-07-27 at 09:07, Aahz wrote:

Here's a quick draft of the text for the 2.3 download page. Could someone please provide a list of the bugs we want to show up in the Known bugs section?

WARNING: Consider waiting for Python 2.3 if you use IDLE or if you care about absolute stability. See "Known bugs" below for more info. Known bugs First of all, Python 2.3 is overall more stable than Python 2.2.3. There have been many bug fixes, and Python's extensive and growing suite of unit tests ensures that bugs rarely recur. However, bugs can and do show up in new code that has not yet been exercised in the Real World. Python 2.3's final release was in a schedule crunch because of a commitment to a release date for Apple Computer and OS X 10.3 (Panther), and several minor but critical bugs made it into the release. These bugs are minor because (except for IDLE) they are far from core Python code; they are critical because you will have problems if you run into them. We plan to release Python 2.3.1 within a month. We recommend downloading and using Python 2.3, but waiting for 2.3.1 if you're new to Python and plan to use IDLE or if you're using Python in a mission-critical application.

If I read this, I probably wouldn't touch Python 2.3 final with a 10 foot rigid boa. Why is it not sufficient to say, on index.html:

Please note: running the new IDLE in Python 2.3 may produce spurious warnings from personal firewall software on some Windows machines. Please see the known bugs list for more information.

Then on bugs.html, we provide more information, such as describing exactly what idle is doing without any fear mongering. Include a promise that we'll fix this for Python 2.3.1. People can then make up their own minds on whether they care enough, but at least we've informed them as best as possible before the fact. It doesn't sound to me like there are any problems preventing people from enjoying Python and idle on Windows right now, just that they'll get some confusing unexpected warnings.

-Barry