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

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Mon Jan 11 00:07:58 CET 2010

The announcement is precisely to avoid the situation where people commit new features to the 2.x main line of development (after the 2.7 maintenance branch is created) in the expectation that they will be released as part of a hypothetical 2.8 release.

Whether that info needs to be in each and every 2.7 announcement... probably not. It isn't really info for users of Python, just for developers of Python.

I think the announcement is indeed also for the users, and I would prefer it to stay in the release announcements, so that people will know for sure (and speak up) before the 2.7 release happens.

As for decisions: I don't think there was an official BDFL pronouncent, but I recall Guido posting a message close to that, proposing that 2.7 will be a release that will see bug fix releases for an indefinite period of time (where indefinite != infinite). This was shortly after him proposing that perhaps we shouldn't make a 2.7 release at all, and stop at 2.6.

As for such a decision giving a bad light on Python: I don't think that will be the case. Instead, I hear many users surprised for how long we have been maintaining to parallel versions - "that must have taken a lot of effort". So everybody will likely understand that enough is enough.

Regards, Martin

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