[IPython-dev] Dropping 2.4 support

[David Warde-Farley]

On 22-Aug-09, at 6:29 AM, David Warde-Farley wrote:

> Just my 2c, which should be worth an awful lot less than 2c given that
> I've contributed approximately 5 lines to IPython: given how common it
> is as a cluster computing environment, and how one of the most
> compelling use cases of IPython is cluster parallelism, RHEL should
> count for a lot IMHO.
>
> I personally usually build my own Python and libraries and get them
> installed in /opt, but for less savvy users... Maybe freezing an 0.10
> branch in bugfix only mode and clearly indicating RHEL/py2.4 users
> should use 0.10.x?

Fernando, Brian, Gael and I had a conversation a few nights ago in  
person and for the sake of documenting it I promised I'd recount it  
here.

Basically, since Red Hat isn't shipping recent versions of IPython or  
any of the scientific toolstack it becomes increasingly unlikely that  
people are using the stock distribution Python but are building the  
whole stack from source but are unwilling to build a new Python as  
well. Freezing 0.10 as a stable endpoint for 2.4 users is likely a  
more than reasonable compromise.

Cheers,

David