making python scripts backwards compatible

[Brian Quinlan]

J.Jacob wrote:
> I could not
> upgrade the remote computer (no root access) and even if i
> could the problem would come up soon again when the
> (mobile agent-)program relocated.

If you were just trying to solve this problem for a single machine, you
can always install your own version of Python in your home directory.
That's what I do on for my web hosting account.

> So the request is this:
> 
> If you write code that could be used by people or systems
> based on python 1.5.2 please make sure your code is
> backwards compatible to 1.5.2.  If that is too much work,
> please mention the python version you need to use it
> somewhere in the top of your source.  Especially for
> networking software.

This is a completely unreasonable request, which Guido fielded in -dev
recently; he pointed out that there is little point in adding language
features to Python if development is anchored to old language versions.

Also, most modules are authored by volunteers, who probably have little
interest in making their modules work on ancient Python installations.
They might not even have Python 1.52 installed.

Cheers,
Brian