[Python-Dev] Proposed schedule for Python 3.4

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Executive summary:

Larry admits that doing an early alpha is a plausible experiment, he
just has reasons not to do it himself.  OTOH, Nick has a reason for
wanting to do it in *this* release cycle.

It's Larry's call; we should restrict ourselves to giving him the
information he requests to make a decision on which reasons are more
important to him.

Serhiy Storchaka writes:
 > On 03.10.12 20:10, MRAB wrote:
 > > I downloaded the alphas to test the support for PEP 393 I'd added to
 > > the regex module.
 > 
 > Hardly alpha would be useful to you if it released before PEP 393 
 > implementation.

Of course not.  But Nick is requesting this precisely because the PEPs
he wants to get extra testing are already implemented, or very close
to it, and presumably his (implied) promise to have "reasonably
complete" implementations available by alpha 1 is credible.  So your
counterfactual is hardly relevant.

MRAB's example of how alphas are useful is relevant because it's a
real example, with rationale, of the kind of third-party integration
testing Larry suspects *won't happen* if an alpha is released way
early.