Stability and change

[phil hunt]

On Sat, 06 Apr 2002 14:29:46 GMT, Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
><posted & mailed>
>
>Guido van Rossum wrote:
>        ...
>> About the change rate in general: it's hard to find the proper pace.
>        ...
>> for faster change.  I have to pick a middle ground (and it's easier to
>
>Linus Thorvalds seems to have done pretty well with picking TWO middle 
>grounds -- two parallel tracks for Linux, "stable" and "experimental".
>
>Without the former he'd have lost the commercial interests, and "normal
>people" who DO need SOME level of stability; without the latter, a crucial 
>hard-core of neophile hackers might have gone away in search of other, more 
>dynamic projects.  With both tracks, things seems to have been smoother.
>
>Why don't we start thinking of a similarly dual-tracked Python -- one
>track aiming at stability (in a "middle ground" sensible sense: strong
>commitment to not breaking old code -- introducing small new features
>and new library modules _is_ OK, else one can use a bugfix-only-"track"
>for some previous release), one aiming at frequent releases, innovation,
>etc.

An excellent idea, IMO !!!

-- 
<"><"><"> Philip Hunt <philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk> <"><"><">
"I would guess that he really believes whatever is politically 
advantageous for him to believe." 
                        -- Alison Brooks, referring to Michael
                              Portillo, on soc.history.what-if