[Numpy-discussion] Numpy deprecation schedule

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:33 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 8:09 PM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
>> A number of items on the 1.8 todo list are reminders to remove things
>> that we deprecated in 1.7, and said we would remove in 1.8, e.g.:
>>   https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/596
>>   https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/294
>>
>> But, since 1.8 is so soon after 1.7, we probably shouldn't actually do that.
>>
>> I suggest we switch to a time-based deprecation schedule, where
>> instead of saying "this will be removed in N releases" we say "this
>> will be removed in the first release on or after (now+N months)".
>
> We can always delay removal if a particular release comes sooner than
> originally expected. The deprecation policy is just that we specify
> minimum version numbers at which the features can be removed. It's not
> really a firm schedule.
>
> I do take your suggestion to heart, though. We shouldn't remove stuff
> faster than 12 months or so. I just think that it should modify our
> release process, not our "marking for deprecation" process.

I'm not sure what this means in practical terms, though? Take the
stuff deprecated in 1.7, released 2013-02-10. From here it seems
plausible that the first release after 2014-02-10 could be 1.9, 1.10,
or even, if we end up really embracing the small-quick-release cycle,
1.11. So which should we write down as our expected version number for
the 1.7 deprecations?

-n