How important is Python 1.5 compatibility?

[David Bolen]

Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com> writes:

> Based on the discussions I've seen, I'm getting the impression that this
> is less and less the case as time goes on (which is, of course, exactly
> how you'd expect things to be).  How important is Python 1.5
> compatibility today?

I probably have to answer that in two ways for myself:

First, while our new development projects are holding Python 2.2 as
the baseline (probably move that to 2.3 before they get released),
Python code in our production deployed systems (a few thousand
machines at ~500 sites) is still entirely on 1.5.2, as is our
production central services for those sites - although the latter not
changing is more a lack of need than the logistical hurdle that the
sites represent.  So I certainly still appreciate and prefer modules
that are 1.5 compatible when possible.

However, even with such an installed base, I don't have my head in the
sand and don't necessarily expect most current packages to continue to
support 1.5.  At the moment, in most cases when a package that I need
doesn't, I can continue to run those sites with an older version of it
that did at one time support 1.5.  That's probably part of the reason
I haven't taken on the operational overhead of upgrading yet.

So I can't say that I'm against packages enforcing a more modern
minimum (that's probably 2.2 in my mind at the moment).  My guess is
somewhere in the next year or two I'll really want some particular
package and take on the upgrade task to transition my installed base
to a 2.x series.

-- David