PEP 285: Adding a bool type

[Robin Becker]

In article <a8uh5p$nu7$1 at thorium.cix.co.uk>, gbreed at cix.compulink.co.uk
writes
>Robin Becker wrote:
>
>> This article in salon 
>>         http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/08/lehman/print.html
>> 
>> about Manny Lehman, my old department head, gives an insight into why
>> people like myself are often afraid of software change.
>
>And why Python is an exception
>
>"""
>Michael Godfrey, a University of Waterloo scientist, is equally hesitant 
>but still finds the Lehman approach useful. In 2000, Godfrey and a fellow 
>Waterloo researcher, Qiang Tu, released a study showing that several 
>open-source software programs, including the Linux kernel and fetchmail, 
>were growing at geometric rates, breaking the inverse squared barrier 
>constraining most traditionally built programs. 
>"""
>
>
>                                 Graham

Lines of code is a poor measure if that's what's growing exponentially. 

Anyhow growth isn't the problem, if the bugs are growing exponentially
as well then nothing is achieved. M$ Windows has certainly grown
exponentially in usage if not in code size at least of the last decade.

Python isn't growing exponentially, but the existence of multiple
versions of python with small incompatibilities in odd corners of the
language is certainly an example of what leads to uncertain behaviour.

The Python developers seem unhappy that many want to stick with 1.5.2
(eg Redhat), but users of any software are not required to follow the
research interests of others. 

Scripts in sed or awk that are 20 years old still run because their
languages are stable. Python scripts that are 5 years old don't run. The
rate of change is increasing precisely because product developers think
continually changing them is advantageous. New versions always create
update fever further down the food chain which is why intermediary users
get so fed up with continual minor adjustments that cause software
uncertainty.
-- 
Robin Becker