[Python-Dev] [python-committers] FINAL WEEK FOR 3.7.0 CHANGES!

Ivan Pozdeev vano at mail.mipt.ru
Fri May 18 09:20:19 EDT 2018


On 18.05.2018 10:55, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:
> 17.05.18 21:39, Brett Cannon пише:
>> Maybe we should start thinking about flagging PRs or issues as 
>> needing a What's New entry to help track when they need one, or 
>> always expect it in a PR and ignore that requirement when a 'skip 
>> whats new' label is applied. That would at least make it easier to 
>> keep track of what needs to be done.
>
> The requirement of flagging PRs or issues as needing a What's New 
> entry doesn't differ in principle from the requirement of creating a 
> What's New entry for these changes. The latter is good, and I'm trying 
> always create a What's New entry for significant enhancement or 
> potentially breaking change. And even I sometimes is unsure and don't 
> document some important changes (like in issue30399). Needed a look of 
> yet one pair of eyes.
>
> As for requiring a What's New entry by default and introducing a 'skip 
> whats new' label, I suppose this will add much nuisance. Most PRs 
> (except docs and tests changes) need a news entry, but most PRs don't 
> need a What's New entry because their are bug fixes. Therefore a 'skip 
> whats new' label will be required much more times than 'skip news' or 
> 'skip issue' labels.
>
Since Python uses semantic versioning (https://semver.org), the 
criterion for "what's new-worthy" changes is simple: they are _public 
interface changes_ (which include visible changes to documented behavior).
(I maintain that changes to behavior that is not documented -- incl. 
issue30399 -- are _not_ public interface changes, and whoever relies on 
them does that on their own risk.)

Reading previous What's New, I see that it is structured like this
* Entries for major changes:
     * General design decisions
     * Changes that fall into a category (more recent What's New's 
include about a dozen categories)
* "Other": the list of the rest

So, it makes sense to mark work items as "interface change" or 
something, and optionally with a caterory if that category is established.
You can't make a mistake here 'cuz a public interface change requires an 
edit to related documentation.
> A thing that can help is a tool that makes a structural diff between 
> NEWS files for different versions and between different branches. It 
> will filter out bugfix changes. The simple 'diff' is not well 
> appropriate because entries can be in different order, and news 
> entries now are scattered between several files, and news entries for 
> previous version sometimes should be searched in different files, and 
> sometimes should be searched on a different branch. The text of 
> entries in different versions can also be different because the same 
> issue can change the behavior on the master and backport the part of 
> changes as a bugfix.
Not all bugs apply to all, or multiple branches, so that wouldn't filter 
them out reliably.
>
>
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-- 
Regards,
Ivan

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