[Python-Dev] python/dist/src/Lib/bsddb __init__.py,1.5,1.6

[Tim Peters]

[Jeremy]
> Perhaps we could wait to hear from Jack or Just or someone who was
> concerned about feature creep in maintenance releases.  I think we
> should decide now whether to follow the policy they propose or we
> should drop it.  Right now, it feels like it's in limbo.

Guido needs to set the direction here.  Slamming new features into micro
releases became irresistible after the 1.5.2 experience, where a very long
time passed without a new Python release (not even a bugfix release).  That
naturally caused people to want to get every improvement in ASAP.

We were able to counteract that successfully in the early days of
PythonLabs, because then we pumped out two minor releases per year, and it
was much easier to sell "leave the micro release a pure bugfix release --
the next minor release is only a few months away".

Then 2.3 stretched out over 18 months, and there's no plan for 2.4 in
evidence yet.  Given this most recent history, and the unlikelihood that
PythonLabs's (or a workalike equivalent's) early days will repeat itself
soon, if I had a minor feature I really wanted to get in, I'd try to get it
into a 2.3 micro release.

OTOH, if Guido decides to go back to a schedule-driven release for 2.4, and
it's not terribly far in the future, then it will again be much easier to
sell 2.3 micro releases as bugfix-only (and stick to that).

We're all pretty creative about what we'll call "a bug", when it suits a
feature we believe in <0.7 wink>.