Should non-security 2.7 bugs be fixed?

[Terry Reedy]

On 7/19/2015 6:19 PM, Terry Reedy wrote:

> I, and others, have already made some changes to eliminate differences
> that are unnecessary, at least for 2.7 versus 3.3+ or now 3.4+.

I just got smacked in the face by a difference I had not run into 
before.  I added about 10 lines to a test file is a section that is 
identical in 2.7 and 3.4+.  One line is
         self.assertEqual(type(obj), intended class)
It failed in 2.7.

Quiz: when is the type of an instance not the class that the instance is 
an instance of.  (I expect Steven A. is raising his hand now.)

Give up?

Answer: When you write a class in 2.x without making it a subclass of 
object.

 >>> class Class():
	pass

 >>> inst = Class()
 >>> type(inst) is Class
False
 >>> type(inst)
<type 'instance'>

Since I do not remember how to fix the assert, and was not prepared to 
make the class, in a file other than the one tested, new-style, I just 
commented it out.

This is an example of my claim that backports are best written by 
someone who is a current 2.x user with the particular 2.x knowledge 
needed.  I am not sure I ever had all the knowledge needed to handle the 
backport properly and I now I would prefer to forget about old-style 
classes.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy