[Distutils] Backwards compatability: opinions?

[Fred L. Drake]

Greg Ward writes:
 > Seems to me that the three most important language/library features in
 > 1.5 were:
 >   * packages

  Try "import ni" in the script for older Pythons.  This worked fine
for Grail until other aspects of the code required 1.5.  Make sure the 
__init__.py files contain nothing by comments and docstrings.

 >   * re and r''

  Use regex and more backslashes.  These are convenient, but not
required for functionality.

 >   * class-based exceptions

  Not required for functionality.

 > re and class-based exceptions are only used under 1.5, but I'm not sure
 > if I could sweep the heavily "packagized" nature of the Distutils under
 > the rug.  Would we have to resurrect use of the 'ni' module in the 1.4
 > case?  Would that be painful?

	import sys;
	if sys.version[:3] < "1.5":
	    import ni

 > Any other language features I should be wary of avoiding?  I am willing
 > to consider supporting 1.4 if it won't be too much trouble, but not in
 > the initial phases -- we should probably worry about that when it comes
 > time to make a public release in a few months.

  Don't use assert; write a function that does the same thing.  This
is trivial, but you're welcome to steal the Assert module from Grail
if it's too much typing.  ;-)


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.	     <fdrake@acm.org>
Corporation for National Research Initiatives