[Python-Dev] Pymalloc and backward compatibility

[Aahz]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>
>>>> 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?
> 
> I wasn't talking about vim, sorry.  But we should support Python
> developers who want to write extensions that work with all versions
> from Python 1.5.2 onwards.

With that I can whole-heartedly agree (after all, I'm writing the BCD
module to be backward compatible, and I had to muck with some of Tim's
code to do it ;-).

>> 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.
> 
> Vendors can release new versions as much as they want, but most users
> will only upgrade when forced.  Python 1.5.2 binaries are still *very*
> common.  I still get mail from people who say "why do you change
> Python so much?  1.5.2 works just fine for me."

<nod>  I just think the criteria should be a bit different for developer
tools than end-user products, particularly in the context of an upgraded
developer tool being dependent on a new version of Python.
-- 
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