Hello fellow Pythoneers and Pythonistas, I'm very happy to announce the release of Python 2.6.6. A truly impressive number of bugs have been fixed since Python 2.6.5. Source code and Windows installers for Python 2.6.6 are now available here: http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.6/ The full details of everything that's changed is available in the NEWS file: http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.6/NEWS.txt Python 2.6.6 marks the end of regular maintenance releases for the Python 2.6 series. From now until October 2013, only security related, source-only releases of Python 2.6 will be made available. After that date, Python 2.6 will no longer be supported, even for security bugs. My deepest appreciation go out to everyone who has helped contribute fixes great and small, and much testing and bug tracker gardening for Python 2.6.6. Enjoy, -Barry (on behalf of the Python development community)
On Aug 24, 2010, at 03:31 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
Python 2.6.6 marks the end of regular maintenance releases for the Python 2.6 series. From now until October 2013, only security related, source-only releases of Python 2.6 will be made available. After that date, Python 2.6 will no longer be supported, even for security bugs.
merwok asks on IRC whether documentation changes to release26-maint will be allowed. I can sympathize with the 'allow' argument; Python 2.6 is still either the default version or soon to be the new default in several distributions, and it will take a while before Python 2.7 is as widely available. I can also sympathize with the 'disallow' argument; it's more work for everybody because it effectively means the branch is still open, and I will probably have to push out new docs every now and then. OTOH, I suspect there won't be *that* many documentation fixes for Python 2.6 and that the overhead will be minimal. What did we do for Python 2.5? I'm willing to support consensus, and if that means allowing documentation fixes, I'll accept the extra RM work. OTOH, I won't cry too much if the consensus is to not allow them. -Barry
Le mercredi 25 août 2010 01:12:40, Barry Warsaw a écrit :
merwok asks on IRC whether documentation changes to release26-maint will be allowed. I can sympathize with the 'allow' argument; Python 2.6 is still either the default version or soon to be the new default in several distributions, and it will take a while before Python 2.7 is as widely available.
Even if I use Python 2.5, I read 2.7 doc because it is usually more complete (eg. 2.7 has more examples). If I use a new function, I just check that it is not a function introduced in Python 2.6 or 2.7. If you compare 2.5 and 2.7 doc, the 2.5 is just ugly :-) 2.5 has no table of content at the left and it uses subpages which is less pratical (to search something using the browser) that a whole module on the same page. So I just don't care of 2.6 doc :-) -- Victor Stinner http://www.haypocalc.com/
OTOH, I suspect there won't be *that* many documentation fixes for Python 2.6 and that the overhead will be minimal. What did we do for Python 2.5?
The question really is whether there is any chance that they will get released, in some form. There won't be further binary releases (at least not from python.org), so there definitely won't be a CHM release. For 2.5, I didn't do releases of the documentation for security releases. You might decide to make it differently, i.e. including doc sets with the security releases. If you are not going to release the documentation (which I would recommend), then committers should be advised not to commit changes to the documentation (as they will not get releases). I do fail to see the point in favor of making documentation changes. Sure, 2.7 isn't yet widely available. However, 2.6 users should generally be fine with the 2.6.6 doc set - will the minor changes that we can make to it (given that no bug fixes will be made to the code) really matter? Regards, Martin
The question really is whether there is any chance that they will get released, in some form. There won't be further binary releases (at least not from python.org), so there definitely won't be a CHM release.
I think that the most important release is docs.python.org/2.6, regardless of python.org/OS-specific downloadable doc packages. If people do like haypo and use the most recent docs instead of the version-specific ones, there’s indeed no need to bother with porting doc fixes and improvements. If people use docs.py.org/2.6 as a reference for some years while 2.7 is not on their systems, it may be worthwhile to keep updating those docs. Regards
Le 08/25/2010 05:32 PM, Éric Araujo a écrit :
I think that the most important release is docs.python.org/2.6, regardless of python.org/OS-specific downloadable doc packages.
If people do like haypo and use the most recent docs instead of the version-specific ones, there’s indeed no need to bother with porting doc fixes and improvements. If people use docs.py.org/2.6 as a reference for some years while 2.7 is not on their systems, it may be worthwhile to keep updating those docs. We can also, recommend to always rely on the last version somewhere, if it's the best way to go.
This way, we can avoid those questions in the future. I like how the django project present their documentation: there is a little informational text at the head of each doc, saying that "you're not browsing the most up-to-date documentation, you can find the last one here"; maybe can we do a similar thing for the python doc ? Regards, Alexis
I like how the django project present their documentation: there is a little informational text at the head of each doc, saying that "you're not browsing the most up-to-date documentation, you can find the last one here"; maybe can we do a similar thing for the python doc ?
In principle, yes. However, it is really tricky to say what the "last one" is: is 3.1 more recent that 2.7, or not? When 3.2 is released: should the 2.6 documentation point to 2.7, or 3.2? If you would now propose to merely have a link from the 2.6 version to both 2.7 and 3.2: that link is already there. Regards, Martin
Am 25.08.2010 17:32, schrieb Éric Araujo:
The question really is whether there is any chance that they will get released, in some form. There won't be further binary releases (at least not from python.org), so there definitely won't be a CHM release.
I think that the most important release is docs.python.org/2.6, regardless of python.org/OS-specific downloadable doc packages.
Which is not updated from the branch anymore. You will see that it redirects to /releases/2.6.6, which is the docs released with 2.6.6.
If people do like haypo and use the most recent docs instead of the version-specific ones, there’s indeed no need to bother with porting doc fixes and improvements. If people use docs.py.org/2.6 as a reference for some years while 2.7 is not on their systems, it may be worthwhile to keep updating those docs.
I do think that most people just use docs.python.org, and since we clearly mark everything that is new in 2.7 there is no harm in doing so either. I don't think I'll want to bother with porting doc fixes to the 2.6 branch. Georg -- Thus spake the Lord: Thou shalt indent with four spaces. No more, no less. Four shall be the number of spaces thou shalt indent, and the number of thy indenting shall be four. Eight shalt thou not indent, nor either indent thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to four. Tabs are right out.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I think my question has got good answers (usage patterns, versionchanged/versionadded, lack of releases, opinion of the doc editor), so it seems good for our users and for developers to let the 2.6 docs in peace. Regards, and a toast to 2.6.6!
On Aug 28, 2010, at 01:12 AM, Georg Brandl wrote:
I don't think I'll want to bother with porting doc fixes to the 2.6 branch.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. We will not be porting doc fixes to release26-maint. I would be open to a doc fix that was specifically addressing a security concern, but we'll handle that the same way we handle all security related fixes to retired branches. Cheers, -Barry
participants (7)
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"Martin v. Löwis" -
Alexis Métaireau -
Barry Warsaw -
Georg Brandl -
Raymond Hettinger -
Victor Stinner -
Éric Araujo