[Python-Dev] Python 1.6 timing

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "Guido" == Guido van Rossum <guido@cnri.reston.va.us> writes:

    Guido> There are several other things I can think of now that were
    Guido> planned for 1.6: revamped import, rich comparisons, revised
    Guido> coercions, parallel for loop (for i in L; j in M: ...),
    Guido> extended slicing for all sequences.  I've also been
    Guido> thinking about making classes be types (not as huge a
    Guido> change as you think, if you don't allow subclassing
    Guido> built-in types), and adding a built-in array type suitable
    Guido> for use by NumPy.  I've also received a conservative GC
    Guido> patch that seems to be fairly easy to apply and has some of
    Guido> Tim Peters' blessing.

All very cool things that could easily wait until 1.7.  After all,
what's in a number?  If, as Andrew puts forth, getting a stable Python
release with Unicode is very important for Python's future
positioning, then I say let's go with his more modest list, mainly
Unicode, sre, and Distutils.  We've already got string meths, tons of
library improvements, and sundry other things.  That's a good enough
laundry list for the next release.

From a political standpoint, I'd call the next release 1.6 and not
bother with another installment in 1.5.x series.  And I agree with
Andrew, we should fast track that release as much as possible.  I'm
not sure what the state of the Unicode patches, sre, or Distutils
current is, although I haven't seen any of that stuff checked into the
tree.  My free-time plate is pretty full with JPython and Mailman, but
I'm willing to help where possible.

-Barry