[Python-Dev] Adding PEP consistent aliases for names that don't currently conform

[Nick Coghlan]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Please don't do this. We need stable APIs. Trying to switch the entire
> community to use CapWord APIs for something as commonly used as
> datetime sounds like wasting a lot of cycles with no reason except the
> mythical "PEP 8 conformance". As I said, it's a pity we didn't change
> this at the 3.0 point, but I think going forward we should try to be
> more committed to slow change. Additions of new functionality are of
> course fine. But renamings (even if the old names remain available)
> are just noise.

Even for 3.0, the only API I can recall doing this for was the threading
module, and there we had the additional motivation of being able to add
multiprocessing with only a PEP 8 compliant API while still having it be
close to a drop-in replacement for the corresponding threading API.

Having helped with that kind of rename once (and for a relatively small
API at that), I'd want a *really* compelling reason before ever going
through it again - it's messy, tedious and a really good way to burn
volunteer time without a great deal to show for it at the end.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------