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

[Steve Holden]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: python-dev-bounces at python.org
> [mailto:python-dev-bounces at python.org]On Behalf Of Tim Peters
> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 6:36 PM
> To: jeremy at alum.mit.edu; Martin v. Löwis
> Cc: Raymond Hettinger; python-dev at python.org
> Subject: RE: [Python-Dev] python/dist/src/Lib/bsddb
> __init__.py,1.5,1.6
>
>
> [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>.
>
So, what we need is a plan for a 2.4 release, then. How soon would it
need to be, though? And who can commit time to making it happen. Seems
to me that some formerly active core developers are currently busy in
other realms. Is it feasible to have a 2.4 plan, or are we ready to
contemplate (gasp) 3.0? What help can such as I, not a practiced C coder
and fairly heavily committed and thinly spread, be?

regards
--
Steve Holden                                 http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming                http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/
Interview with GvR August 14, 2003       http://www.onlamp.com/python/