[Python-Dev] Distutils & configparser rename

[Brett Cannon]

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 9:08 PM, Gregory P. Smith <greg at krypto.org> wrote:
> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 1:33 PM, A.M. Kuchling <amk at amk.ca> wrote:
>>> Python 2.6 renames the ConfigParser module to be configparser.
>>>
>>> Distutils imports ConfigParser in various places.  I just made a
>>> commit updating the import in one places, and then noticed that part
>>> of commit r63248, which made the same change, was reverted in order to
>>> preserve backward-compatibility.  Instead, the default path will
>>> include lib-old again to keep the old module name available.
>>>
>>> I suggest dropping that goal, though.  We've preserved compatibility
>>> but I'm not aware that anyone uses the Python 2.x Distutils with
>>> earlier versions of Python.  In particular:
>>>
>>> * There's no standalone distutils package on PyPI, nor can I find
>>>  such a package with a general web search.  Am I missing it?
>>>
>>> * I do not see users advising other users to use a later version of
>>>  Distutils to fix their problems.
>>>
>>> Is anyone actually benefiting from the effort of maintaining backward
>>> compatibility?
>>
>> The change was reverted at MAL's request, but he didn't qualify it
>> beyond wanting the backwards-compatibility.
>>
>> -Brett
>
> backwards compatibility?  whats wrong with just doing:
>
> try:
>    import configparser as ConfigParser
> except ImportError:
>    import ConfigParser
>
> in the distutils code that needs to be.
>

Nothing's wrong with it. It's just that Alexandre did what we have
done for all of the stdlib and just moved entirely over to the new
name.

-Brett