[Python-checkins] r50978 - in python/trunk: Lib/distutils/__init__.py Misc/NEWS

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Anthony Baxter wrote:
> On Thursday 03 August 2006 04:59, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>> If Anthony gives the OK, I'll revert the patch and change
>> the attribute back to the '2.5.0' string literal. This
>> will then not break anything.
> 
> It's not going to break anything. If you want to cut a separate release, set 
> the version number. That's hardly an issue. Really, you should be checking 
> for functionality, not individual version numbers - in the same way as 
> duck-typing for objects.

Oh, come on, that's just silly and you know that. We're not
talking about a single object that you can test for a feature
and besides, how are you going to check for bugs in the
code when you don't have a version number to test against ?

If it were that simple, we might as well drop the whole concept of
version numbers in Python altogether.

BTW, one of the key complaints about distutils is that it
doesn't have dependency checking based on version numbers...

>> In a sense, making the version number dynamic is adding
>> a new controversial feature. IMHO, that's a no-no this
>> late in the release process and should be left untouched
>> until the next release - with a chance to have a proper
>> discussion first.
> 
> I'm not changing it now. If the consensus is that having fiddly version 
> numbers strewn through the standard library is a good idea, it can be changed 
> before c1.

Fair enough, then we'll change it back for c1.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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