[Python-Dev] python/dist/src/Lib/bsddb init.py,1.5,1.6 (original) (raw)

Steve Holden sholden at holdenweb.com
Mon Sep 15 07:59:36 EDT 2003

-----Original Message----- From: python-dev-bounces at python.org [mailto:python-dev-bounces at python.org]On Behalf Of Tim Peters Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 6:36 PM To: jeremy at alum.mit.edu; Martin v. Löwis Cc: Raymond Hettinger; python-dev at python.org Subject: RE: [Python-Dev] python/dist/src/Lib/bsddb init.py,1.5,1.6

[Jeremy] > Perhaps we could wait to hear from Jack or Just or someone who was > concerned about feature creep in maintenance releases. I think we > should decide now whether to follow the policy they propose or we > should drop it. Right now, it feels like it's in limbo. Guido needs to set the direction here. Slamming new features into micro releases became irresistible after the 1.5.2 experience, where a very long time passed without a new Python release (not even a bugfix release). That naturally caused people to want to get every improvement in ASAP. We were able to counteract that successfully in the early days of PythonLabs, because then we pumped out two minor releases per year, and it was much easier to sell "leave the micro release a pure bugfix release -- the next minor release is only a few months away". Then 2.3 stretched out over 18 months, and there's no plan for 2.4 in evidence yet. Given this most recent history, and the unlikelihood that PythonLabs's (or a workalike equivalent's) early days will repeat itself soon, if I had a minor feature I really wanted to get in, I'd try to get it into a 2.3 micro release. OTOH, if Guido decides to go back to a schedule-driven release for 2.4, and it's not terribly far in the future, then it will again be much easier to sell 2.3 micro releases as bugfix-only (and stick to that). We're all pretty creative about what we'll call "a bug", when it suits a feature we believe in <0.7 wink>. So, what we need is a plan for a 2.4 release, then. How soon would it need to be, though? And who can commit time to making it happen. Seems to me that some formerly active core developers are currently busy in other realms. Is it feasible to have a 2.4 plan, or are we ready to contemplate (gasp) 3.0? What help can such as I, not a practiced C coder and fairly heavily committed and thinly spread, be?

regards

Steve Holden http://www.holdenweb.com/ Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/ Interview with GvR August 14, 2003 http://www.onlamp.com/python/

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