[Python-Dev] Add from __experimental__ import bla [was: Should we move to replace re with regex?]

[Victor Stinner]

Le samedi 27 août 2011 21:57:26, Dj Gilcrease a écrit :
> The idea of a __experimental__ area is good for any pep's or
> stliib additions that are somewhat controversial (API isnt agreed on,
> code may take a while to integrate properly, developer wants some time
> to hash out any edge case bugs or API clarifications that may come up
> in large scale testing, etc).

__experimental__ does already exist, it's the Python Package Index (PyPI) !

http://pypi.python.org/pypi

You can write Python extensions in C and distribute them on the PyPI. I did 
that when my patch to display the Python backtrace on a crash was "rejected" 
(not included in Python 3.2, just before the release). It was a great idea, 
because I had more time to change the API (read the history of the 
faulthandler module on PyPI: the API changed 5 times since the first public 
version on PyPI...) and the module is now available for Python 2.5 - 3.2, not 
only for Python 3.3.

Remember that the API of a module added to CPython is frozen. You will have to 
wait something like 18 months until the next CPython release to change 
anything (add a new function, remove an old/useless function, etc.). 
Seriously, it's not a good idea to add a young module into Python before its 
API is well defined and stable.

The Linux kernel has "staging" drivers. It's different because there is a new 
release of the Linux kernel each two months (instead of 18 months for 
CPython). The policy for the API is also different: the kernel has no stable 
API, whereas the Python API cannot be changed in minor release (x.y.Z).

http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/stable_api_nonsense.html
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt

Victor