[Python-Dev] Official version support statement

[Barry Warsaw]

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On May 10, 2007, at 12:53 PM, Terry Reedy wrote:

> This strikes me as a bit over-officious (the 'officially' adds  
> nothing to
> me except a bit of stuffiness).
>
> Worse, it seems wrong and hence, to me, misleading.  The current de  
> facto
> policy is that when a new major release comes out, there is a *final*
> minor, bugfix release of the previous major version.  Thus, 2.5 is  
> being
> supported while 2.6 is being worked on.  As I understand it, there  
> are no
> more plans to touch 2.4 than 2.3 and so on.  So the current message  
> is:
> "If you want a 2.5 bug fixed, find it, report it, and help get it  
> fixed now
> before 2.6 is released."
>
> I am aware that if a trustworthy person or persons were to backport  
> some
> substantial numbers of fixes from 2.5 to 2.4, greenlight the test  
> suite on
> several systems, cut release candidates, and repond to reports, the  
> file
> would appear on the official Python site.  But currently, as far as  
> I know,
> this 'support' is as empty as the Official Help-Yourself Plate of  
> Donated
> Cookies on my kitchen table.

I'm happy to document whatever we decide the policy is, but I think  
we should decide and produce an official statement as such.  It helps  
users and vendors to know what they can count on us for and what they  
might be on their own for.  It's also not that big of a deal if we  
amend the policy later because we have volunteer release managers for  
earlier versions.

- -Barry

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