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

[Guido van Rossum]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:24 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greg Ewing wrote:
>> Nick Coghlan wrote:
>>
>>> I think the main thing that may be putting me off is the amount of
>>> energy that went into deciding whether or not to emit Py3k warnings or
>>> DeprecationWarning or PendingDeprecationWarning for use of the old
>>> threading API.
>>
>> Having made that decision, though, couldn't the result
>> just be re-used for any future renaming exercises of
>> this kind?
>
> Maybe - the problem with taking that decision and trying to get a
> general rule out of it is that there were plenty of reasonable arguments
> on all sides (there were more than just 2 options, which made the choice
> all the more challenging). It wouldn't take many changes in the
> specifics of a situation for the "best" answer to be different from what
> we ended up doing in the threading case. The precedent would add weight
> to the idea of doing the same thing again, but I don't think it would be
> enough on its own to completely decide the matter.
>
> So the only general rule I really got out of that experience was
> actually "let's not do this again if we can possibly avoid it" :)

I'll gladly take that as an added rationalization of my plea not to
change datetime.

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