[Matplotlib-devel] supported python versions

[Daniele Nicolodi]

On 26/09/15 23:29, Thomas Caswell wrote:
> Having not heard anything back, I am going to take that as agreement :)

I believe that taking silence as consent works only if you give a
deadline for opinions and veto before hand, not after the fact.

> The plan will be:
> 
>    v1.5.0 is supported in 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 and is known to work with 2.6,
> and 3.3
>    v2.0.0 is supported in 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 and is known to work with 2.6,
> and 3.3
>    v2.0.1 is supported in 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 and is known to work with 3.3
> 
> The mechanics of this will be after 2.0:
>    - we reduce the travis test matrix to just 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 
>    - any syntax related bug reports (mostly set literal and ordereddict)
> are closed as not supported
>    - review and merge 2.6/3.3 specific patches

I still don't understand what "know to work with" means. From the above
it seems that it means that "you may be luck and we have not break
compatibility, but if we did, then it is on you, we are not going to fix
it". With, to me, reads the same as "not supported".

Breaking compatibility with python releases in patch version releases is
also a terrible idea, in my opinion.

Matplotlib release 1.5 is release candidate now, and as far as I know it
is supposed to work with python 2.6. What changes are you foreseeing in
patch releases of the 1.5 series that will take advantage of breaking
compatibility with python 2.6?

I believe that matplotlib 1.5 series will be only about bug fixing, and
that all development will go into 2.0. I don't really see how bug fixes
can be helped by dropping compatibility with old python releases.

As for what python releases matplotlib 2.0 should support, I don't have
strong opinions. I think dropping python 2.6 and 3.3 support may be
reasonable. However, do not change the python release support matrix in
patch level releases!

Cheers,
Daniele