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2009/6/19 Benjamin Peterson <benjamin@python.org>:
Backwards compatibility seems to be an issue that arises a lot here. I think we all have an idea of it is, but we need some hard place to point to. So here's my attempt:
Nice :-) A general point - it's probably worth clarifying that you're referring to major releases (2.6 -> 2.7 etc.) here. Minor releases have a strict bugfixes-only policy.
applications and libraries. This is fantastic; it is probably one of a language designer's most wishful dreams.
That's a slightly odd wording. I'm not sure I can think of a better one, though...
This policy applys to all public APIs. These include the C-API, the standard
... applies ...
* The behavior of an API *must* not change between any two consecutive releases.
With the exception of compatibility warnings as described below. In practice, I think APIs *do* change, so presumably there must have been a pair of releases between which the change happened. I see what you're trying to say, but I think you overstated things a little. Paul.