[python-committers] Adding a (small) feature to 3.4 for Argument Clinic: inspect.Signature supporting simple named constants for default values

[Terry Reedy]

On 1/6/2014 5:21 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> FWIW, this would probably be better on python-dev, but maybe you wanted to cut
> down on potential noise and churn?

Better here, I think.

> On Jan 06, 2014, at 01:34 PM, Larry Hastings wrote:
>
>> The thing is, I feel like this is borderline between bug fix and new feature.
>> But without adding this, we would make a lot of the Argument Clinic
>> conversions pretty messy.  So I want to check it in.  I just don't want to
>> piss everybody off in the process.
>>
>> Can you guys live with this?
>
> I sure can.  To me, AC is "the new feature" and as we continue to adopt it in
> Python 3.4, we'll find more corner cases like this one.  Better to do what we
> can to improve the situation now rather than have to wait until 3.5.

I agree with Barry. To my understanding, the reason for the internal 
'feature freeze' with beta 0, with betas yet to come, is so that we can 
test new API's and *possibly adjust the details*, based on experience, 
before the final ..0 release and public feature freeze. All new features 
are provisional until then (we could rip out a new feature), which is 
why betas are not for production use, even if they are otherwise the 
best release available for some purposes. The fix versus feature 
question, for changes to the new feature, comes into play again after 
..0, when considering ..1, etc.

Terry