[Kurt]
Unless I'm missing something, we would need to merge HEAD to the AST branch once more to pick up the changes in MAIN since the last merge, and then make sure everything in the AST branch is passing the test suite. Otherwise we risk having MAIN broken for awhile following a merge.
[Raymond]
IMO, merging to the head is a somewhat dangerous strategy that doesn't have any benefits. Whether done on the head or in the branch, the same amount of work needs to be done.
If the stability of the head is disrupted, it may impede other maintenance efforts because it is harder to test bug fixes when the test suites are not passing.
Well, at some point it will HAVE to be merged into the head. The longer we wait the more painful it will be. If we suffer a week of instability now, I think that's acceptable, as long as all developers are suitably alerted, and as long as the AST team works towards resolving the issues ASAP. I happen to agree with Kurt that we should first merge the head into the branch; then the AST team can work on making sure the entire test suite passes; then they can merge back into the head. BUT this should only be done with a serious commitment from the AST team (I think Neil and Jeremy are offering this -- I just don't know how much time they will have available, realistically). My main point is, we should EITHER abandon the AST branch, OR force a quick resolution. I'm willing to suffer a week of instability in head now, or in a week or two -- but I'm not willing to wait again. Let's draw a line in the sand. The AST team (which includes whoever will help) has up to three weeks to het the AST branch into a position where it passes all the current unit tests merged in from the head. Then they merge it into the head after which we can accept at most a week of instability in the head. After that the AST team must remain available to resolve remaining issues quickly. How does this sound to the non-AST-branch developers who have to suffer the inevitable post-merge instability? I think it's now or never -- waiting longer isn't going to make this thing easier (not with several more language changes approved: with-statement, extended import, what else...) What does the AST team think? -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)