[Numpy-discussion] Proposal of timeline for dropping Python 2.7 support

[Ralf Gommers]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 7:58 AM, Thomas Caswell <tcaswell at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am in very supportive of this plan.
>
> For Matplotlib the intention is to do a mpl2.2LTS early 2018 and a mpl3.0
> (no major API breaks other than dropping py2 support) summer 2018 with the
> same meaning of LTS.
>
> I also had thought about bumping the minimum numpy version of Matplotlib
> to the first py3 only version when it is out.  There is no technical
> reason, but it seems nicely symmetric.
>
> In general we all need to get better about dropping support for old
> versions of dependencies (I am throwing stones from inside my glass
> house).  The prolonged support of py2 has warped our idea of how long old
> versions of things need to be supported and it imposes real costs up and
> down the stack.
>

My $2c: dropping support for all-but-the-latest numpy is not a great idea.
There's no need to support numpy versions that are >3 years old, but
supporting 2-4 versions back is something most projects have consistently
done, and it has real value. Both in terms of not forcing users to upgrade
multiple packages in lock-step, and for things like debugging (is it a new
numpy or an mpl bug? --> check if the failure disappears with older numpy).

Ralf
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/attachments/20171114/881c1563/attachment-0001.html>