[Python-Dev] r86418 - in python/branches/release27-maint: Doc/library/difflib.rst Lib/difflib.py Lib/test/test_difflib.py Misc/NEWS

[Nick Coghlan]

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 6:32 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> On 11/12/2010 2:42 PM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
>> Maybe I've missed something, but is there any reason to add a new
>> parameter in a bugfix release?
>> (apart from security issues)
>
> This is a bugfix. We discussed this (with Tim's participation) here last
> July/August and pretty well agreed that this was the least obnoxious
> solution to a bad situation.

Yep, as Terry said, the current behaviour is irredeemably broken in
some situations, but switching it off completely would break other
cases. Adding a new optional parameter that defaulted to the 2.7
behaviour was considered the least-bad option out of those available
(do nothing, add parameter, change default behaviour, add new API).

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia