[Python-Dev] Single- vs. Multi-pass iterability

[Oren Tirosh]

On Sun, Aug 04, 2002 at 04:07:08PM -0500, Patrick K. O'Brien wrote:
> [Guido van Rossum]
> >
> > - There really isn't anything "broken" about the current situation;
> >   it's just that "next" is the only method name mapped to a slot in
> >   the type object that doesn't have leading and trailing double
> >   underscores.
> 
> I'm way behind on the email for this list, but I wanted to chime in with an
> idea related to this old thread. I know we want to limit the rate of
> language/feature changes for the business community. At the same time, this
> situation with iterators is proof that even the best thought out new
> features can still have a few blemishes that get discovered after they've
> been incorporated into Python proper. 

I think I have a reasonable solution for the re-iteration blemish in the
iteration protcol without breaking backward compatibility:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2002-July/026960.html

> So perhaps we need some sort of concept of a "grace period" on brand-new
> features during which blemishes can be polished off, even if the polishing
> breaks backward compatibility. After the grace period, breaking backward
> compatibility becomes a higher priority.

Giving more people a chance to play with new features before they are 
finalized is a very good idea. When a significant new feature is checked in 
to the CVS a preview version can be released in source and precompiled form
to encourage more people to test it. Most CVS snapshots seem stable enough 
for a programmer's daily use.

A good example of such a significant new feature is the source encoding 
just checked in.

	Oren