[Python-Dev] PEP 11: Dropping support for ten year old systems

["Martin v. Löwis"]

>> So by this policy, RHEL and SuSE users would be off worse than with
>> my original proposal (10 years).
> 
> Red Hat continues to provide patches for RHEL within the "Extended Life
> Cycle" (years 8, 9 and 10), but it's an optional add-on.

My understanding is that you keep the patches available - but you
don't produce any new ones, right?

> So another interpretation of the above with Nick's proposal could be 10
> years on RHEL.  (though obviously I'm biased in favor of RHEL)

I wouldn't count mere availability of old patches on the server as
"support".

> Approaching this from another angle: please do add me to the "nosy" on
> any compatibility bugs with running latest python code on RHEL.

I'll try to remember, but really can't promise. But then, as I said
before: I think Linux support in Python is particularly easy. For
example, there isn't a single distribution-specific test in
configure.in.

> The other compat issues are in the toolchain: e.g. very recent versions
> of gcc .  In downstream Fedora, we tend to be amongst the first to run
> into new compilation warnings (and, occasionally, "exciting"
> code-generation bugs...)

Dropping support for old gcc versions (or other old compiler versions)
is probably an issue on its own. It will be difficult to figure out
what work-arounds are in place for what particular compiler glitch.

Regards,
Martin