[Python-3000] [Python-Dev] Policy Decisions, Judgment Calls, and Backwards Compatibility (was Re: splitext('.cshrc'))

[Patrick Maupin]

On 3/9/07, Phillip J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> At 07:18 PM 3/9/2007 +0100, Martin v. Löwis wrote:
> >Phillip J. Eby schrieb:
> The only group the change benefits is people writing *new* code -- so give
> them a new function.

Actually, it's worse than that.  The only group the change benefits is
people writing *new* code who *never* want or need it to run on older
Python versions.

Anybody who wants their code to work across multiple versions now
needs to avoid this function like the plague, because it will be
different.  Not better, not worse, just different.

Also, I think there is more potential breakage than some people
realize.  There are *lots* of directories which are named ".something"
and splitext is probably used in parsing these out more often than
most people realize.  This is not a corner case -- there is probably a
ton of code out there relying on the current behavior, which, as you
point out, is explicitly documented.

Regards,
Pat