[Python-ideas] Add support for version objects

[Nick Coghlan]

On 27 May 2016 19:29, "Robert Collins" <robertc at robertcollins.net> wrote:
>
> On 28 May 2016 at 07:37, Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:
> >
> >> On May 27, 2016, at 3:04 PM, Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >>
> >> I propose to add support for version objects in the stdlib. Version
object is a namedtuple-like object with special attrbutes major, minor, etc
for representing semantic version in the form used by most open source (and
not only) software. The sys module already contains two version objects:
sys.version_info and the result of sys.getwindowsversion().
> >
> >
> > If Python adds a version objection, it should not be one that
implements SemVer, but one that implements PEP 440 which is what PyPI, pip,
setuptools, etc all use. SemVer, while a nice idea, is too simplistic to
represent the variations of versioning that the Python community uses.
> >
> > There’s also a pure Python implementation of it available [1].
> >
> > To be honest though, I don’t see a lot of benefit to adding it to the
standard library.
>
> Same. Further, I don't see any need for the stdlib itself to use it -
> so its not being drawn in as a dependency, or do you have something in
> mind Serhiy?

The main advantage I'd see to stdlib inclusion is providing "one obvious
way to do it" - it isn't immediately obvious to a newcomer that PEP 440 and
the implementation in packaging are the preferred approach for SemVer-like
version numbers in Python projects.

Cheers,
Nick.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/attachments/20160528/f0588d3b/attachment-0001.html>