[Python-Dev] Breaking undocumented API

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:40:36 -0500
Alexander Belopolsky <alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Michael Foord
> <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> wrote:
> ..
> >> I don't understand why everyone seem to have accepted Michael's
> >> premise that "we don't have a clearly stated policy for what defines
> >> the public API of standard library modules."  We do have such a policy
> >> and it is well known (while the location in the reference manual may
> >> not be):
> >
> > Ha. 14 paragraphs into the grammar reference on the import statement is
> > perhaps not where developers would go to look for Python standard library
> > development policy..
> 
> Very true.  To make it slightly more visible, any objections to the
> following patch? (It adds "public names (in module globals)" linking
> to that 14-th paragraph in the index.)

I think what Michael meant is that the language grammar reference is not
(and shouldn't be) the authority on stdlib development policy. To which
I would agree.

Regards

Antoine.