[Python-Dev] Pymalloc and backward compatibility

[Guido van Rossum]

> >> Why can't you realistically desupport pre-2.0?
> > 
> > Because 1.5.2 is still most commonly found as the default Python, like
> > it or not.  I don't care for 1.4, but 1.5.2 support is a MUST.
> 
> <scratch head> I must be missing something here.  We're not talking
> about an end-user product, we're talking about a developer tool.
> What's wrong with requiring a Python download for someone who at
> this point wants to *upgrade* vim from the system default?

I wasn't talking about vim, sorry.  But we should support Python
developers who want to write extensions that work with all versions
from Python 1.5.2 onwards.

> The default Python for Mandrake 8.1 (*not* the most current
> version), for example, is Python 2.1.1.  I don't think Python 1.5.2
> is the default Python for anything other than Red Hat at the moment,
> and even if I'm wrong about that now, it certainly will be true by
> the time any new version of vim becomes an installed default.

Vendors can release new versions as much as they want, but most users
will only upgrade when forced.  Python 1.5.2 binaries are still *very*
common.  I still get mail from people who say "why do you change
Python so much?  1.5.2 works just fine for me."

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)