[Python-Dev] Re: PEP Politics

[Guido van Rossum]

[Aahz]
> >> If a great feature comes up after development starts, too bad -- the
> >> next development cycle will usually be less than nine months away.

[me]
> > Bah.  For most features, 9 months is an eternity compared to the time
> > it takes to code it.  About the only exceptions I recall are new-style
> > classes and Unicode; major packages like email or xml also are
> > exceptions, but they are usually developed outside the Python CVS tree
> > first anyway.

[Aahz]
> It's not the time for coding that's the issue, it's the time for
> testing, documentation, integration, and so on.  But even that's
> beside the point; this suggestion is being brought up in the context
> of the stability/change thread, and this suggestion would IMO go a
> long way toward changing perceptions.

It depends a lot on the impact of the feature.  If something like list
comprehensions came up at the last moment, I would agree to put it
off.  But something like sys._getframe() shouldn't need to wait 9
months, no matter *how* conservative you want to be.  I don't think
you can give hard and fast rules here.

> For example, what's the cost in postponing the bool() change to 2.4?
> (I'm not talking about adding the builtin the way you just did for 2.2.1
> (which I agree with), but changing the type of "not x".)
> 
> Note that I'm not pushing this suggestion, but I think your "Bah" is
> overstating the opposition.

I disagree with your suggestion to put off bool() to 2.4.  I see no
technical reason to do so, and I don't think politics should influence
release decisions to this extent.

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