[Python-Dev] Pymalloc and backward compatibility

[Aahz]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> 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.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes -- but why is this a problem for vim?

I am not talking about some abstract general case; it looks to me that in
this specific case backward compatibility isn't an issue, and I still
have not seen any explanation for why I'm wrong.
-- 
Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"There are times when effort is important and necessary, but this should
not be taken as any kind of moral imperative."  --jdecker