[Python-Dev] Product function patch [issue 1093]

[Guido van Rossum]

On 9/4/07, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> The 3.x compatibility break (however alleviated by 2to3) makes a nice clean
> cutoff. The numpy that works on Pythons 3.x would essentially be a port from the
> current numpy. Consequently, we could modify the numpy for Pythons 3.x to always
> rely on the stdlib API to build on top of. We couldn't do that for the version
> targeted to Pythons 2.x because we could only rely on its presence for 2.6+. I
> don't mind maintaining two versions of numpy, one for Python 2.x and one for
> 3.x, but I don't care to maintain three.

I just had a discussion with Glyph "Twisted" Lefkowitz about this. He
warns that if every project using Python uses 3.0's incompatibility as
an excuse to make their own library/package/project incompatible as
well, we will end up with total pandemonium (my paraphrase). I think
he has a good point -- we shouldn't be injecting any more instability
into the world than absolutely necessary.

In any case, the rift is more likely to be between 2.5 and 2.6, since
2.6 will provide backports of most 3.0 features (though without some
of the accompanying cleanups, in order to also provide strong
backwards compatibility).

To be honest, I also doubt the viability of designing and implementing
something that would satisfy Greg Ewing's goals *and* be stable enough
in the standard library, in under a year.  But as I said before, I
don't see much point in arguing much further until I see the PEP. I
may yet be convinced, but it will have to be a good design and a
well-argued proposal.

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