[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change

[Anthony Baxter]

> I only postulated that because people seem to have been calling "2.1.x"
> the Garth branch.  I don't really care one way or the other, and having the
> same even-odd meaning as the Linux kernel means you won't fight the tide of
> people who already know that way of doing things.

That tide's only the linux users, and the linux users who care what 
kernel they're running. I'm an ex-sysadmin, pretty solid unix geek, 
and I nowadays run whatever my distro comes with - as long as it 
supports what I want to do, I don't care. I don't think that saying 
"it's what linux does" is enough to carry the day by itself. I suspect 
that if you want to go with the flow, we should follow the approach that 
Microsoft uses to mark their unstable releases. (And I'm _not_ going to 
use any one of the many, many cheap shots about unstable MS releases 
that I have in my head here - feel free to substitute your own. :)

> Once checked in and tested, Guido
> should have been able to say, "okay, time for a point release", after which
> a "few buttons get pushed" (hand wave, hand wave) and a new release appears
> on SF.

Hm. Maybe. It would be nice, but the other thing to consider it that
particularly for a "Garth" branch (does that mean the experimental 
branch gets calle Wayne, I wonder?) you want to try to build it on
a couple of boxes first - just in case.

> That wasn't what I was referring to.  I was referring to the spate of
> checkins where people have to advance version numbers prior to a release.  I
> would hope that could be automated.

That's pretty much down to 
  Include/patchlevel.h - two spots
  README - one line
  Misc/NEWS - if it's been kept up to date, no changes.

> Obviously, if what I have in mind is going to work, PEP 102 is going to have
> to be streamlined quite a bit.  

No complaints from me :)

>     >> I don't know what's involved in making a Windows installer, but
>     >> somebody besides Tim should be able to do that too.
>     Anthony> I assume nothing. 
> The fact that Tim owns that process and nobody else seems willing to pick it
> up suggests otherwise.

I should be clearer - I seem to recall during 2.1.2 that Tim muttered 
something about 'half a day' to do the release. He also muttered something
about 'damn bass players' too, though, so I'm not sure how realistic he
was being there...

Anthony