[Python-Dev] uuid backward compatibility

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
> This sentiment is puzzling to me.  It seems you assume that we can trust
> future developers to change the code but we can't trust them to update
> the documentation.

That's precisely my expectation. Suppose Python 3.0 unifies int and
long, and deprecates the L suffix. Then,

   if not 0 <= time_low < 1<<32L:

will change to

   if not 0 <= time_low < 1<<32:

While this will work fine in Python 2.4 and onwards, it will break
2.3. Whoever is making the change won't even think of the necessity
of a documentation change - after all, this is supposed to be a
style change, only. People do make whole-sale style changes to the
entire library from time to time.

> So we can't have documentation even if it's factually
> true just because someone might forget to update it?

Sure, we can, and if you want that to, we should (you are the author,
so your view is quite important), and I'll shut up. I just wanted
to caution about a risk here.

> If you see a better way to word the comment to reduce the possibility
> of misunderstanding, that's cool with me.  I'd just like people who
> get their hands on the module to know that they can use it with 2.3.

I personally didn't find it misleading at all, and see no need to
change it for *that* reason. I see a potential risk in it wrt.
future changes, but perhaps I'm paranoid.

Regards,
Martin