[Python-Dev] [RELEASED] Python 2.7 alpha 2 (original) (raw)

Neil Schemenauer nas at arctrix.com
Sun Jan 10 20:30:09 CET 2010

Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:

On behalf of the Python development team, I'm gleeful to announce the second alpha release of Python 2.7.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Python 2.7 is scheduled to be the last major version in the 2.x series.

Has this really been decided already? Maybe I missed it. In my opinion, it does Python's reputation harm to make such a statement. Conservative users (probably the vast majority of Python users) don't like to hear that software they are considering using is nearing the end of its life. What does it gain us to announce that the 2.x branch is dead aside from bugfixes?

I propose that the 2.x branch be treated like 2.x.y branches: as long as there is sufficient volunteer labour, it should continue to live. In order to avoid wasted development effort, it would be prudent to announce that unless a 2.8 release manager steps up, whatever is committed to the 2.x branch after the 2.7 release may never get released.

Said another way, it's okay for the Python developers to decide to abandon 2.x and put their efforts into 3.x. It's not okay for them to prevent others from continuing to work on 2.x or to somehow make 2.x look worse so 3.x looks better. Python 3 needs to stand on its own terms and I'm confident it can.

Best regards,

Neil

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list