[Python-Dev] Stdlib and timezones, again

[Lennart Regebro]

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 11:16 AM, Dirkjan Ochtman <dirkjan at ochtman.nl> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Lennart Regebro <regebro at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > A year is no age for a Python installation. A customer of mine has one
> > website developed in 2003, still running on the same server. It runs
> Python
> > 2.3, I don't remember which version, but I'd be surprised if it is 2.3.7
> > from 2008.
>
> Right. If they don't keep their Python up-to-date, why would they
> bother with their tzupdate?
>

I'm sorry, is there a new releases of Python 2.3 made last year I don't
know about?

My point is that there is not much of a difference in the incentive
> for upgrading your timezone data whether an initial version of it came
> with Python or not.


Incentive, no. But there is a difference in awareness and likelyhood.


> Having to manually install it might make you
> slightly more aware that it helps if you upgrade it once in a while,
> but it seems more likely to be a fire and forget type of operation, in
> which case it's basically the same as shipping a version of the
> timezone data with Python (which is much easier, of course).
>

Well, me at least would include that package in the buildout or the
instructions, etc. It is therefore much more likely to be updated if it is
not included with Python.

To put it crudely, you seem to think that most developers keep careful
> track of what packages they need for their apps and actively assess
> the risk for upgrading each of the packages involved. On the other
> hand, I would assume more developers just get something working and
> then fix any bugs that come up.
>

No, I assume there are developers of both types, and in between. If
somebody just installed pytzdata and then doesn't upgrade it, fine, that's
his problem. He doesn't become *more* likely to upgrade it because it's
included in the standard library. But many developers are more likely to
keep it updated and upgrade it if it is *not* included, at least once in a
while. For example, if it's included in a buildout it could get updated
when the buildout is re-run because some of the custom modules have been
updated. While if it's included, it will never end up in the buildout and
never get updated.

//Lennart
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