[Python-Dev] Pymalloc and backward compatibility

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Aahz wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > Aahz:
> >>
> >> Why can't you realistically desupport pre-2.0?
> >
> > Because 1.5.2 is still most commonly found as the default Python, like
> > it or not.  I don't care for 1.4, but 1.5.2 support is a MUST.
> 
> <scratch head>  I must be missing something here.  We're not talking
> about an end-user product, we're talking about a developer tool.  What's
> wrong with requiring a Python download for someone who at this point
> wants to *upgrade* vim from the system default?
> 
> The default Python for Mandrake 8.1 (*not* the most current version), for
> example, is Python 2.1.1.  I don't think Python 1.5.2 is the default
> Python for anything other than Red Hat at the moment, and even if I'm
> wrong about that now, it certainly will be true by the time any new
> version of vim becomes an installed default.

Python 1.5.2 is still in active use. Some of the extension
writers simply can't drop 1.5.2 because of an active user
base still working with it (either because they are using
commercial products built on top of 1.5.2 or because
they like the speed... Python 2.x is slower than 1.5.2, or
because their books still reference the old version).

Python's release schedule has changed dramatically over
the last few years -- I would expect that the Python 2.0
user base will also last a few more years.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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