[Python-Dev] Preparing 2.0.1

[Martin v. Loewis]

> it's probably best to upgrade to the current SRE code base.

I'd be concerned about the "pure bugfix" nature of the current SRE
code base. It is probably minor things, like the addition of

+    PyDict_SetItemString(
+        d, "MAGIC", (PyObject*) PyInt_FromLong(SRE_MAGIC)
+        );

+# public symbols
+__all__ = [ "match", "search", "sub", "subn", "split", "findall",
+    "compile", "purge", "template", "escape", "I", "L", "M", "S", "X",
+    "U", "IGNORECASE", "LOCALE", "MULTILINE", "DOTALL", "VERBOSE",
+    "UNICODE", "error" ]
+

+DEBUG = sre_compile.SRE_FLAG_DEBUG # dump pattern after compilation

-    def getgroup(self, name=None):
+    def opengroup(self, name=None):

The famous last words here are "those changes can do no
harm". However, somebody might rely on Pattern objects having a
getgroup method (even though it is not documented). Some code (relying
on undocumented features) may break with 2.1, which is acceptable; it
is not acceptable for a bugfix release.

For the bugfix release, I'd feel much better if a clear set of pure
bug fixes were identified, along with a list of bugs they fix. So "no
new feature" would rule out "no new constant named MAGIC" (*).

If a "pure bugfix" happens to break something as well, we can atleast
find out what it fixed in return, and then probably find that the fix
justified the breakage.

Regards,
Martin

(*) There are also new constants AT_BEGINNING_STRING, but it appears
that it was introduced as response to a bug report.