Should non-security 2.7 bugs be fixed?

[Terry Reedy]

On 7/18/2015 7:50 PM, Devin Jeanpierre wrote:
> Considering CPython is officially accepting performance improvements

I was not exactly aware of that.

> to 2.7, surely bug fixes are also allowed?

Of course, allowed.  But should they be made, and if so, by who?

> I have contributed both performance improvements and bug fixes to 2.7.
> In my experience, the problem is not the lack of contributors, it's
> the lack of code reviewers.

I understand the general problem quite well.  But feeling that one would 
have to do a 2.7 backport after writing, editing, or reviewing a 3.x 
patch can discourage doing a review in the first place. I am at that 
point now with respect to Idle patches.

> I think this is something everyone should care about. The really great
> thing about working on a project like Python is that not only do you
> help the programmers who use Python, but also the users who use the
> software that those programmers create. Python 2.7 is important in the
> software ecosystem of the world. Fixing bugs and making performance
> improvements can sometimes significantly help the >1B people who use
> the software written in Python 2.7.
>
> -- Devin
>
> On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 4:36 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>> I asked the following as an off-topic aside in a reply on another thread. I
>> got one response which presented a point I had not considered.  I would like
>> more viewpoints from 2.7 users.
>>
>> Background: each x.y.0 release normally gets up to 2 years of bugfixes,
>> until x.(y+1).0 is released.  For 2.7, released summer 2010, the bugfix
>> period was initially extended to 5 years, ending about now.  At the spring
>> pycon last year, the period was extended to 10 years, with an emphasis on
>> security and build fixed.  My general question is what other fixes should be
>> made?  Some specific forms of this question are the following.
>>
>> If the vast majority of Python programmers are focused on 2.7, why are
>> volunteers to help fix 2.7 bugs so scarce?
>>
>> Does they all consider it perfect (or sufficient) as is?
>>
>> Should the core developers who do not personally use 2.7 stop backporting,
>> because no one cares if they do?
>>
>> --
>> Terry Jan Reedy
>>
>> --
>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


-- 
Terry Jan Reedy