Quoting Greg Ewing
Concerning the version number, I thought the intention of PEP 404 was simply to say that the PSF would not be releasing anything called Python 2.8, not to forbid anyone *else* from doing so.
Or am I wrong about that?
That's correct.
If I'm right, there's nothing stopping Christian from releasing Stackless Python 2.8 with whatever improvements he wants.
"Nothing stopping" is exactly right. People still don't need to like it. Barry wishes there was something stopping him, and be it a lawyer invoking trademark law. If "2.8" was just a version number of Stackless Python not related to Python version (like PyPy's version number currently being 2.2), protest would be much less. People fear that releasing Stackless Python 2.8 would create the impression that even CPython has continued development, and it might require significant PR efforts to educate people. Regards, Martin