Backwards Compatibility of Python versions

[Joshua Macy]

Paul Rubin wrote:

> 
> I just tried that and it throws an error:
> 
>     $ python
>     Python 1.5.2 (#1, Mar  3 2001, 01:35:43)  [GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2 on linux-i386
>     Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
>     >>> from __future__ import division
>     Traceback (innermost last):
>       File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
>     ImportError: No module named __future__
>     >>> 
> 
> That's with the version of Python currently being shipped with Red Hat
> Linux, so any scripts I distribute with that future import will crash
> for a lot of people.
> 



try:
     from __future__ import division
except ImportError:
     pass

Of course, the semantics of division will then vary depending upon 
whether the type is integer...but that's the problem that future 
division is trying to solve, so I don't see any way around that.

Joshua