Watershed Python Versions

[Aahz]

In article <du71xkbi7qg.fsf at lehtori.cc.tut.fi>,
Ville Vainio  <ville at spammers.com> wrote:
>>>>>> "Ted" == Ted  <tedlandis at rogers.com> writes:
>
>    Ted> I would like to collect opinions on which versions of Python
>    Ted> should be considered watershed versions. By this I mean
>    Ted> versions which are stable and contain significant landmark
>    Ted> features.
>
>All Python versions are (supposed to be) stable :).

More or less, yup.

>I think it's generally perceived that 2.2 is a watershed version. It's
>the introduction of "modern" Python, with iterators, generators and
>new style classes.
>
>2.0 might be also - 1.5.2 is the last "old" Python, and the version
>that has no doubt been irritating to many, due to Red Hat using it as
>the default Python in the old versions (pre 8.0). In fact I found
>writing for Python 1.5.2 almost intolerable, having to do without a+=1
>(writing a=a+1 instead, ah, the pain). ISTR list comprehensions were
>introduced back on 2.0 too, but I really started loving them on 2.1
>era.

That's roughly correct, although the big news in 2.0 was Unicode.  Other
critical additions were string methods, augmented assignment, and garbage
collection.  See the "What's New" section of 
http://www.amk.ca/python/

Generally speaking, although all released Python versions have been
extremely stable by industry standards, my preference is to wait for the
first bugfix release of the first major version after a watershed
version.  IOW, good releases would be 2.1.x and 2.3.x.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"Typing is cheap.  Thinking is expensive."  --Roy Smith, c.l.py