[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change (original) (raw)

Jeremy Hylton jeremy@zope.com
Mon, 8 Apr 2002 18:50:40 -0400

"GvR" == Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

Basically, we need unambigious rules about when we'll stop doing micro releases from a particular branch. I think we should maintaince on 2.1 and 2.2, largely because 2.2 has so much experimental stuff. Once we get to 2.3, we can re-evaluate the situation and decide whether we want to continue maintaining 2.1.

GvR> I think 2.1 is at the point where we only need to be reactive GvR> (e.g. fix reported core dumps). The focus should be to keep GvR> 2.2 alive -- sooner or later it will gain a reputation of GvR> stability. :-)

Let me put my Python/Zope user hat on for a moment. I help maintain a Zope cluster that runs Python 2.1. We're not going to have another Zope release that uses Python 2.2 any time soon. When we do, it will probably be Zope 3 and that will be hard for me to upgrade to. So I expect the most recent Python I'll be using for the next year will be Python 2.1. I'd really be grateful for bug fixes and maintenance on this version as a result.

Put in a slightly more abstract way, Python 2.2 is a major release with lots of new features. I expect a lot of users will stick with the last minor release that isn't a major release in disguise :-). So we'd serve them well be doing more maintenance on 2.1.

Also, I haven't yet found any response to /F's suggestion that the std library always code to an earlier version of Python. What do you think of that?

Jeremy