[Python-Dev] 3.x as the official release

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:21:11 -0400
Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>
> The question of when to declare 3.x the "official" release is
> interesting. I am inclined to say "when there's at least one other
> implementation at 3.2" - even if CPython is then at 3.3 or 3.4.

I don't think that's a good criterion. 95% of Python users (my
guesstimate) are on CPython, so whether or not alternative
implementations are up-to-date isn't critically important.

3.1 had some warts left (*), but 3.2 should really be a high-quality
release. Many bugs have been squashed, small improvements done
(including additional features in the stdlib, or the new GIL), and
unicode support has been polished again thanks to Martin's and Victor's
efforts. Not only will it be as robust as any 2.x release (**), but it's
also more pleasant to use, and there's upwards compatibility for many
years to come.

(*) some of them fixed in the 3.1 maintenance branch

(**) with a couple of lacking areas such as the email module, I suppose

Regards

Antoine.