[Python-Dev] Continuing 2.x

[James Y Knight]

On Oct 27, 2010, at 10:22 PM, Kristján Valur Jónsson wrote:

> Hello all.
>  
> So, python 2.7 is in bugfix only mode.  ‘trunk’ is off limit.  So, where does one make improvements to the distinguished, and still very much alive, 2.x series of Python?
> The answer would seem to be “one doesn’t”.  But must it be that way?
>  
> When Morris stopped producing the Oxford III model back in ’57 in favor of new developments, it didn’t spell the end for it.   The plant was sold to India and the Hindustan Ambassador continues to be developed and produced to this day.  It even has fuel injection.
> The Morris Motor Company isn’t around anymore.
>  
> So, here is my suggestion:
> Let’s move the current ‘trunk’ into /branches/afterlife-27.  Open it for submissions from people such as myself that use 2.7 on a regular basis and are willing to give it some extra love.  Host it there without the usual stringent python quality assurance, buildbot support, release management and all that rigmarole.  Open-source it, if you will.
> Svn.python.org already plays host to some other, less official, projects such as stackless, so why not this?

The python community has already decided many times over that Python2 is dead and Python3 is the future. So if you want to continue maintaining Python2, that means you need to fork it. I think you'd be best off doing so on your own infrastructure: convincing the python developers to support such a thing is quite unlikely, and furthermore, completely unnecessary.

Unlike the Oxford III, you don't need to be "sold" python2: it's open source, you can fork it without any official approval. So, just do it. I wish you best of luck, though: most unofficial forks die a lonely death. But, if enough people feel like you do, it could become successful.

But I really doubt anyone else is going to want to use it any python2 afterlife without stringent quality assurance, multi-platform support releases, and other rigamarole. You'd have to set up all that stuff for yourself if you possibly hope to attract users. I can't think of any possible use for an unreliably maintained version of python2...

James