[Python-3000] u'text' as an alias for 'text'?

[Lennart Regebro]

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:52 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
> Lennart Regebro wrote:
>  > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:02 PM, Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> wrote:
>  >>  Fair enough. But doesn't 2.5->2.6 present the same problem? After all,
>  >>  you can't start using 2.6 features until everyone is using it, right?
>  >
>  > No, but you can start using 2.6 before everyone is using it, since 2.6
>  > is backwards compatible with 2.5.
>
>  Maybe I'm confusing backwards and forwards compatibility again.
>
>  If you add __future__ imports to the 2.6 code, it will stop running
>  on 2.5. Does that make it "not backwards compatible", or "not forwards
>  compatible".

That makes it not backwards compatible, and it makes it forwards compatible.

>  Right. You can't do that either if a __future__ import is added to
>  2.6.

No, but then you can run it under 3.0.

> You develop for 2.6, and then make sure it runs on 3.0 -
> *exactly* the same as for 2.5/2.6.

Uh... no. You develop for 2.5, and then you don't do anything else. It
*will* run under 2.6. No need to check. Because it's backwards
compatible. And 3.0 is not. So it's definitely not the same. However,
if 2.6 were forwards compatible, this would be true for the 2.6 to 3.0
port.

-- 
Lennart Regebro: Zope and Plone consulting.
http://www.colliberty.com/
+33 661 58 14 64