Trees

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 1:26 AM, Tim Chase
<python.list at tim.thechases.com> wrote:
> While 2.0 is certainly antiquated, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is
> often considered the best definition of what's considered "oldest
> supported production environment".  RHEL v4 ships with Py2.3 and one
> can still obtain extended support for this environment.  RHEL v5 is
> actively supported (i.e., without the need for an extended-support
> contract) and ships with Py2.4 so I generally try to at least support
> 2.4 when I'm writing code that could possibly end deploy on a server
> such as RHEL5.   Some of us are stuck supporting code in such
> antediluvian environments. :-/  Then again, if you're like me and
> working in such environments, you already know to use set() instead
> of {...} and to avoid the "with" statement, and the like. :)

I'm aware that there are reasons for wanting to support older versions
of things. I do it myself in several places (though not specifically
with Python pre-2.7). But there's still a difference between "Moan
moan, we have to use set([1,2,3]) when {1,2,3} would make *so* much
more sense" and "Sadly, I have to ensure that my code works on Python
2.4, so I can't take advantage of all the newer features". One is a
complaint about the language; the other is an acknowledgement of the
personal pain of having to support multiple versions (and is going to
get easier; as years go by, the oldest Python on a supported RHEL will
become newer).

ChrisA