[Python-Dev] what level of backward compatibility? how

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Fri May 7 10:31:46 EDT 2004


>  > I have a different POV.  I don't think there is a compelling reason to
>  > change this attribute into a set (I doubt it's so time-critical as to
>  > make a difference) and given that the attribute isn't flagged as
>  > "private" by having a name starting with underscore, I think the
>  > change ought to be reverted.

[Fred]
> I'd like to suggest that we either document the "right way" to extend the 
> information to support new URL schemes, and possibly add a function as the 
> way to do that.  Having to update a whole set of lists from outside the 
> module seems a poor and error-prone way to do this.

Let's be conservative and not change the code just because the
(rarely-needed) API is a bit ugly.  Let's just document the existing
way and not declare old code that uses it out of date.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)



More information about the Python-Dev mailing list