when will python 2.5 take in mainstream?

[Chris Mellon]

On 6 Feb 2007 08:46:29 -0800, Ben Sizer <kylotan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 6, 3:35 pm, a... at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote:
> > Ben Sizer <kylo... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >It would be great if someone could invest some time in trying to fix
> > >this problem. I don't think I know of any other languages that require
> > >recompilation of libraries for every minor version increase.
> >
> > How do you define "minor version increase"?  If you look at the
> > progression from 2.0 through 2.5, it's pretty clear that each version
> > doesn't particularly fit "minor version increase" even though each one
> > only increments by 0.1.
>
> I can't say I agree with that. In terms of naming, it's a minor
> release because the 'major' release number has stayed at 2. In terms
> of time, it's a minor release because it's only happening about once
> every 18 months or so - a short period in computer language terms. In
> terms of semantics, I'd argue they are minor releases because
> generally the changes are just minor additions rather than large
> revisions; I don't see much in the way of significant language
> alterations for 2.5 apart from arguably 'unified try/except/finally',
> nor in 2.4. I don't count addition of new types or modules as 'major'.
> The language itself is fairly stable; it's just the way that it links
> to extensions which is pretty fragile.
>
> --
> Ben Sizer
>

You're claiming that it's a minor increase because you didn't see
anything that "justifies" a major release. Well, the ABI changed, so
there you go.

It doesn't really matter what you call it - the Python releases are
numbered according to their own rules, and if you disagree you can
call 2.5 a major release all you want. Or you can call it a minor
release and accept that the ABI changes between minor releases. But
making up your own release rules and arguing from those is pretty much
a non-starter.