[Python-Dev] 2.7 Release? 2.7 == last of the 2.x line?

[Daniel Stutzbach]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 3:55 AM, David Cournapeau <cournape at gmail.com> wrote:

>  - are two branches are necessary or not ? If two branches are
> necessary, I think we simply do not have the resources at the moment.
>  - how to maintain a compatible C API across 2.x and 3.x
>  - is it practically possible to support and maintain numpy from 2.4
> to 3.x ? For example, I don't think the python 2.6 py3k warnings are
> very useful when you need to maintain compatibility with 2.4 and 2.5.
>

I've already ported some of my Python extension modules to Python 3.  Here's
how I would answer your questions based on my experience.

Writing C code that compiles with Python 2.4 through 3.1 is pretty easy.
Python's C API hasn't changed much and you can use #ifdef and #define for
any bits that must be version-specific.

It's pretty easy to make Python source that works under 2.6 and 3.x.  It's
basically impossible to make Python source that works under 2.4/2.5 and
3.x.  You may be able to write code that works under 2.4/2.5 and works
cleanly with 2to3 to produce 3.x code.  I haven't tried that route, though
in theory it should work.  All you really need is syntax compatibility.  For
the rest, you can check sys.version_info.

In a nutshell, I don't think you need two branches to support an extension
module on Python 2 and Python 3.

YMMV.

--
Daniel Stutzbach, Ph.D.
President, Stutzbach Enterprises, LLC <http://stutzbachenterprises.com>
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