[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change

[Jack Jansen]

On dinsdag, mei 28, 2002, at 07:00 , Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Now consider my frustration.  We go through a *lot* of efforts to make
> consecutive releases backwards compatible, to document changes, to
> introduce warnings about future incompatible changes, etc.

As an aside, note that this backward compatibility is actually a 
mixed blessing, because it means you don't have to update your 
modules now, but there will come a time when it is going to bite 
you.

As a personal example: the MacPython toolbox modules haven't 
been updated to make use of the GC stuff yet (and that's been 
there since 2.0, no?), let alone the new type system. And these 
are almost all generated, so it would probably only take a few 
dozen lines of code to fix them. And the new type system would 
be a real boon for some of the modules (such as the windowing 
and dialog stuff), but because there's no real push (i.e. 
everything still works) nothing has happened yet...
--
- Jack Jansen        <Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com>        
http://www.cwi.nl/~jack -
- If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- 
Emma Goldman -