[Python-Dev] no remaining issues blocking 2.5 release (original) (raw)

M.-A. Lemburg mal at egenix.com
Tue Aug 15 17:45:37 CEST 2006

Guido van Rossum wrote:

On 8/15/06, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:

The distutils version number should be changed back to a static string literal.

It's currently setup to get its version number from the Python version running it which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of having a version number and makes using the SVN distutils package with other Python versions problematic. I am sympathetic to this case. Is there any advantage to the users of distutils of the dynamic version number? If it's only done for the benefit of the release managers (with whose plight I also sympathesize)

FWIW, I've already volunteered to do the version bumping to take that burden off the release managers.

I think it must be rolled back, at least as long as distutils is officially listed as a package that needs to support older versions of Python, which pretty much implies that it's okay to extract it from the 2.5 release and distribute it separately for use with older Python versions.

Well, that's another point we should discuss after 2.5 is out the door: distutils was delisted from PEP 291 (without public discussion).

I find it important to maintain distutils compatibility with a few Python versions back. Even if I can't volunteer to maintain distutils, like Martin suggested, due to lack of time, I don't really see the requirement to use the latest and greatest Python features in distutils, so preserving compatibility with the commonly used Python versions wouldn't hurt.

It makes the life of Python extension writers a tad easier and Python users benefit as a result of being able to download pre-built binaries without being forced to upgrade (this is esp. true for Python users on Windows).

Thanks,

Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com

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