
On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:
Why can't you realistically desupport pre-2.0?
Because 1.5.2 is still most commonly found as the default Python, like it or not. I don't care for 1.4, but 1.5.2 support is a MUST.
<scratch head> I must be missing something here. We're not talking about an end-user product, we're talking about a developer tool. What's wrong with requiring a Python download for someone who at this point wants to *upgrade* vim from the system default?
I wasn't talking about vim, sorry. But we should support Python developers who want to write extensions that work with all versions from Python 1.5.2 onwards.
With that I can whole-heartedly agree (after all, I'm writing the BCD module to be backward compatible, and I had to muck with some of Tim's code to do it ;-).
The default Python for Mandrake 8.1 (*not* the most current version), for example, is Python 2.1.1. I don't think Python 1.5.2 is the default Python for anything other than Red Hat at the moment, and even if I'm wrong about that now, it certainly will be true by the time any new version of vim becomes an installed default.
Vendors can release new versions as much as they want, but most users will only upgrade when forced. Python 1.5.2 binaries are still *very* common. I still get mail from people who say "why do you change Python so much? 1.5.2 works just fine for me."
<nod> I just think the criteria should be a bit different for developer tools than end-user products, particularly in the context of an upgraded developer tool being dependent on a new version of Python. -- Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/ "There are times when effort is important and necessary, but this should not be taken as any kind of moral imperative." --jdecker