Python 3.2 and html.escape function

[Tim Delaney]

On 21 February 2011 19:56, Steven D'Aprano <
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:33:39 +0100, Peter Otten wrote:
>
> > Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> >
> >> On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:15:35 -0500, Gerald Britton wrote:
> >>
> >>> I see that Python 3.2 includes a new module -- html -- with a single
> >>> function -- escape.  I would like to know how this function differs
> >>> from xml.sax.saxutils.escape and, if there is no difference (or only a
> >>> minor one), what the need is for this new module and its lone function
> >>
> >> Unless the html API has changed radically since Python 3.2a, I believe
> >> you are mistaken.
> >
> > Adding a function is not /that/ radical, and it has happened, see
> >
> > http://docs.python.org/dev/py3k/library/html.html
>
> Well, I just learned something, thank you. I was under the mistaken
> impression that adding new functionality after the first alpha release
> was not permitted by the Python devs.
>

Nope - it's after first beta that features are frozen, barring something
important enough to convince the current release manager (with input from
many others) that the release should go back to alpha status. I've followed
a number of such discussions and the bar is set very high.

Python is one of the few projects around these days that follows the
nomenclature of:

alpha: early release to test new features, everything subject to change;
beta: feature-complete, but expected to contain bugs; people testing the
beta version can rely on APIs not changing in the release version;
release candidate: may be promoted to release with just a version change;
any other changes should result in another release candidate.

IIRC there have been one or two cases in the not-recent past where a release
has been made which includes a bugfix not included in any RC (and I
distinctly remember at least one brown paper bag release following just such
a situation), but at least for the last few years on python-dev the release
managers have been strongly against this.

Tim Delaney
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