[Numpy-discussion] Removing datetime support for 1.4.x series ?

[Travis Oliphant]

On Feb 3, 2010, at 11:58 AM, Robert Kern wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 23:45, Travis Oliphant  
> <oliphant at enthought.com> wrote:
>
>> I consider ABI a very significant think.  We should be very accurate
>> about when a re-compile is required.    I just don't believe that we
>> should be promising ABI compatibility at .X releases.   I never had
>> that intention.  I don't remember when it crept in to the ethos.
>
> Please refer to your(!) message "Report from SciPy" dated 2008-08-23:
>
> """
> Robert K, Chuck H, Stefan VdW, Jarrod M, David C, and I had a nice
> discussion about the future directions of NumPy.   We resolved some
> things and would like community feedback on them if there are  
> opinions.
>
> * we will be moving to time-based releases (at least 2 times a year --
> November / May) with major changes not accepted about 4 weeks before  
> the
> release.
> * The releases will be numbered major.minor.bugfix
> * There will be no ABI changes in minor releases
> * There will be no API changes in bugfix releases
> """

Ah, yes.  Thanks.  I forgot about that report.   It sounds like we  
haven't broken the ABI since that time then, right?   How often have  
we broken ABI?   If we haven't broken it since that report, then we  
have had a 18 months of ABI stability.   That's a bit different of a  
picture than David is painting.

Here is the situation as I see it:
    * date-time support can't be added without breaking the ABI.
    * we have already released a version of NumPy that breaks the ABI  
(i.e. the 'cat is out of the bag')

I think we are all in agreement that we should make a release that has  
ABI compatibility with previous releases but keeps all the other  
changes that it can.

The only question left is what release number to give it:   1.4.1 or  
1.3.1 or something else?   There are down-sides to any choice we make,  
but I would argue that if we choose something like 1.3.1 (or maybe  
1.3.9) we can promise no ABI breakage in odd releases and use this as  
an "experience" to re-enforce the memory of that commitment.

I will remove the date-time changes for the ABI-compatible release.

-Travis