[Matplotlib-devel] supported python versions

[Daniele Nicolodi]

On 27/09/15 18:28, OceanWolf wrote:
> On 27/09/15 14:50, Daniele Nicolodi wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Yes, this underpins the reason for changing to "known to work with...", 
> because we don't want to break compatibility in minor versions, but 
> versions 1.5 and 2.0 have already been tested thoroughly on 2.6 and 3.3.

So why not state that 1.5 and 2.0 are supported on python 2.6 and 3.3?

I'm missing the point in phasing out support without a reason. It is
well tested, it works, we are not planning to introduce new
functionality, but yet we want to drop support for old python versions.
Why? I fear that the the urge of doing so is driven almost exclusively
by some guy or another writing a blog post stating that this is what
projects should do.

>> 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.
>
> We release 2.0 shortly after 1.5 which means 1.5 won't have any patch 
> fixes, and 2.0 contains no new features, but a change to the default 
> colours.  But yes, dropping support for python 2.6 allows us use things 
> such as OrderedDict, not saying we will use such things in 2.0.x 
> (assuming we have a 2.0.x release, fingers crossed we find no bugs), but 
> making the change now to the requirements keeps our options open for the 
> future.

I think that there is some misunderstanding. Thomas is proposing to drop
support for python versions in patch level release 2.0.1.

My understanding of a patch level release is that it only fixes bugs,
and for fixing bugs we don't need to drop support for old python version
or use newer python versions features. If you want to add features, call
it 2.1 or something.

Cheers,
Daniele