[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change

[Guido van Rossum]

> Tightening up functions which allowed
> two params where a tuple was correct.

Yeah, we should have used warnings for that first.

> The changes to ConfigParser bit me hard;

I think we were too careless with ConfigParser.

> I think a couple other std lib changes got
> me, too.
> 
> In many cases my 1.5.2 code ended up
> better, so the urge to whine is over 
> pretty quickly.
> 
> In a broader sense, Unicode is by far
> the most disruptive change. My excuses
> for ignoring the damn stuff are disappearing.

Yeah, Unicode will continue to bite where you least expect it. :-(

> > (2) Was the pain worth it, or would you prefer we'd
> > spent more time on
> >     being more backwards compatible?
> 
> I don't have more than a muted grumble 
> about backwards compatibility. Where I end
> up with checking the version, it's to make use
> of a new feature, not keep old code working.
>  
> Recompiling all those extensions is the
> biggest pain.

Distutils to the rescue?

> > > (FWIW, the hardest post 1.5.2 feature for me
> > > to do without is augmented assignment.)
> > 
> > Since you're also a C programmer (I believe), I'm
> > not surprised. 
> 
> Well, the other side of that coin is that I'm
> still only +0 on list comprehensions and -0 on
> lexical scoping :-).

That's OK.  List comprehensions didn't incur any incompatibilities,
and lexical scoping incurred only very rare ones (I think).

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