[Python-Dev] Bring new features to older python versions

[Antoine Pitrou]

Ciao Giampaolo,

> I have a couple of doubts about this though.
> The first one is about licensing.
> What I would be doing is basically copy & paste pieces of the python
> stdlib modules (including tests) and, where needed, adjust them so
> that they work with older python versions.
> Would this represent problem?

I don't think so. Python is distributed under a free non-copyleft
license, which means you are basically free to do what you want as long
as you don't try to change that license, or misrepresent authorship.
(you can also mix that code with code under another license, such as
the BSD, the GPL or even a proprietary license)

> My second doubt is about morality.
> Although this might be useful to those people who are forced to use
> older python versions, on the other hand it might represent an
> incentive for not upgrading (and there will be python 3.X features as
> well).
> Or maybe it won't, I don't know, point is I feel kind of guilty. =)

I don't know. Certainly we would prefer people to upgrade.
Also, the kind of support you will be able to provide as a single
maintainer of that package may not be as good as what we collectively
provide for the official Python distribution.
There's also some stuff there that is coded in C, or that will rely on
some functionality of the core interpreter that is not easily
emulated on previous versions. But I suppose you'll find that out by
yourself.

But I wouldn't describe that as "immoral"; rather, suboptimal.

cheers

Antoine.