[Python-Dev] Dropping support for Win9x in 2.6 (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.peters at gmail.com
Sat Feb 25 06:12:19 CET 2006

[Neal Norwitz]

Martin and I were talking about dropping support for older versions of Windows (of the non-NT flavor). We both thought that it was reasonable to stop supporting Win9x (including WinME) in Python 2.6. I updated PEP 11 to reflect this.

It's OK by me, but I have the same question as Trent:

[Trent Mick]

Are there specific code areas in mind that would be ripped out for this or is this mainly to avoid having to test on and ensure new code is compatible with?

Seem unlikely it's the latter, since I'm not sure any Python developer tests on a pre-NT Windows anymore anyway. Maybe Raymond is still running WinME?

About the former, I don't see much potential. The ugliest 9x-ism is w9xpopen.exe, but comments in the places it's used say it's needed on NT too if the user is running command.com. If so, it stays.

There's a bit of excruciating Win9x-specific code in winsound.c that could go away, and I suppose we could assume that Unicode filenames are always supported on Windows.

Maybe best is that if someone reports a Win9x-specific bug against 2.6+, we could close it as Won't-Fix at once instead of letting it sit around ignored for years :-)

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