[python-committers] Pace of change for Python 3.x [was: My cavalier and aggressive manner, API] change and bugs introduced for basically zero benefit

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 24.01.2017 22:08, Victor Stinner wrote:
> 2017-01-24 21:46 GMT+01:00 Neil Schemenauer <nas-python at arctrix.com>:
>> Maybe we could emulate the Linux kernel releases.  I.e. have
>> relatively fast moving development but also choose releases to give
>> long maintenance cycles.  Ideally the long term releases would be
>> synchronized with OS distribitions (e.g. Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu).
> 
> You should take a look at this old deferred PEP:
> https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0407/

I don't understand the reasoning behind that PEP. With the proposed
timing, those "LTS" releases would be no different than what we have
today.

The only effect of the PEP would be to do releases more often,
which then results in using up minor release version numbers much
too fast to give the impression of a stable programming system.

FWIW: I don't consider a release which is supported for just two years
a long term support release. If we start using such a term it should
match people's expectation following Ubunutu's LTS cycles, i.e.
you get (at least) 5 years support for the release.

All that said, I believe a having a Python 2.7 style long
support version for Python 3 would be nice and have a stabilizing
effect which our user base would appreciate.

I'd not make this based on any timing, though. We'd just say:
this is our new LTS release (e.g. Python 3.7) and then move on
until we're confident again that the feature set has stabilized
enough to create a new LTS release.

Perhaps making the last minor version to a major release version
as we did with 2.7 is a good approach, i.e. we'd switch the
major number when cutting an LTS release and follow similar
guidelines as we have for 2.7 for this 3.x LTS release.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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