[Python-Dev] Raising objections

[A.M. Kuchling]

On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:53:55AM +0200, "Martin v. Löwis" quoted:
> > It is flatly not possible to "fix" distutils and preserve backwards 
> > compatibility.

Would it be possible to figure what parts are problematic, and
introduce PendingDeprecationWarnings or DeprecationWarnings so 
that we can fix things?

> > Sometimes you _have_ to rewrite. I point to 
> > urllib->urllib2, asyncore->twisted, rfc822/mimelib/&c->email. 
> 
> If I had the time, I would question each of these. Yes, it is
> easier for the author of the new package to build "in the
> green", but it is (nearly) never necessary, and almost always
> bad for the project.

I don't mind rewriting much, but hate leaving the original code in
place; this is confusing to new users, even if it's convenient for
existing users.  How many HTML parsers are in the core now?  (My gut
feeling is that that Python's adoption curve has flattened, so it's
probably now more important to keep existing users happy, so the time
for jettisoning modules may be past.)

--amk