[Python-Dev] Proposal to revert r54204 (splitext change) (original) (raw)

Mike Krell mbk.lists at gmail.com
Thu Mar 15 21:10:55 CET 2007

On 3/15/07, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:

... the majority of the people polled thought that it ought to be fixed.

Personally, I didn't respond to your "poll" because I didn't think this particular issue would come down to a silly head count of self-selecting responders.

When I first needed to use splitext in my code, I tested the relevant corner case in question at the interactive prompt. I also read the docstring which explicitly documented the behavior. I then wrote my code accordingly.

Knowing that this was well-defined and documented behavior and having followed this list during previous backward compatibility discussions, I "knew" that there was no way your proposed patch would make it into a minor release because many long-time active developers would rightfully point out that it gratuitously breaks code.

In your radical departure from the common-sense approach to code-breaking changes that typically prevails here, you proved me wrong. So now I'm speaking up.

FWIW, I agree completely with PJE's and glyph's remarks with respect to expectations of stability, especially in a minor release. Sorry, updating the NEWS file isn't good enough, because as has been amply demonstrated here, many people cannot be bothered to read the documentation.

+10000 on reverting the patch and not punishing those users who bothered to the documentation or test the corner cases themselves.

Mike

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