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

David Cournapeau david at silveregg.co.jp
Mon Feb 8 19:52:59 EST 2010


Bruce Southey wrote:

> 
> Not that I actually know much about it, but I thought that datetime is
> a 'rather large feature' difference both in terms of functionality and
> code. Definitely it will allow a unified date/time usage across
> various scikits and other projects that have time functions.

That's a minor feature in the sense that it does not affect everyone. 
(according to who you speak, I guess datetime is not bigger than 
generalized ufunc or python 2.6 support). The general way of dealing 
with versions in open source is that major version change signifies a 
major API break and a major new/different feature set (the break usually 
being justified by the new feature set).

Also, it should be noted that the ABI break that is now accepted and 
being worked upon is merely a developer convenience at the expense of 
our users. It is possible to make almost any change while still being 
ABI compatible in almost any library. For example, in the case of the 
datetime change, it could have been handled as a special case - this is 
ugly and inconvenient, but possible. That's why I am hoping that later 
on, we will be able to agree on making the necessary breaks to make it 
much more convenient for us to change things without breaking the ABI.

cheers,

David



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