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

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Tue Jan 12 23:51:31 CET 2010

On 1/12/2010 5:04 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" wrote:

But you won't have fewer differences. Just because your code runs on 2.8 doesn't mean it will stop running on 2.3 (if you have a need for that). This doesn't get you any closer - you can't use any of the 2.8 features as long as you have to support older versions of Python.

Fundamentally the more 2.x can converge on 3.x, the easier it will be for users to make the leap, because it will be a smaller leap. No, it won't. It might be if people move to 2.8 and drop 2.5, but they likely won't. The longer the 2.x series lives, the more these newer 2.x versions like 2.7 and maybe even 2.8 will be available on common platforms for people to depend upon as minimum versions, which means that as time goes by they can depend on a version that's closer to 3.x. No, that's incorrect. Suppose 2.7 is the last 2.x release, to be released in 2010. Then, in 2015, it may be that everybody has migrated to 2.7, which then is a common platform. If you release 2.8 in 2012, then, in 2015, people will be split between 2.7 and 2.8, and so there won't be a common platform before 2017.

Just like people today may need to work with both 2.5 and 2.6, or privately backport 2.6 bugfixes to 2.5.

So stopping 2.x development earlier will also give us a common platform earlier.

With years of bug fixes and hence high quality.

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