[Python-Dev] Re: Patch level versions and new features (Was: Some dull gc stats)

[Martin v. Loewis]

"M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@lemburg.com> writes:

> For cases like the email package or distutils, I think it's
> perfectly OK to only provide the updates for older Python
> releases as separate download. Both have their own way of
> life, so IMHO this is acceptable.

In neither case, this is really possible: Once you have the package in
the Python core, a separate installation in site-packages cannot
override the core implementation.

I believe that was the motivation for Barry to consider backporting
large amounts of changes. The same holds for distutils, except that
there aren't that many major changes.

Regards,
Martin