[Python-Dev] Module version variable

[Tres Seaver]

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On 03/16/2011 06:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On 3/16/2011 5:54 PM, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Raymond Hettinger
>> <raymond.hettinger at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> ..
>>> The version number in the decimal module refers to the version of the
>>> spec that is being complied with.  I would like that version number
>>> to remain in the module.
>>
>> I mentioned this in my first post.   If the version number of the spec
>> is important, shouldn't it be called something else?
> 
> I agree, especially if we need to issue a new version of the library 
> that implements the same spec. We couldn't upgrade __version__, since 
> it's used for the spec. There'd be no way to know (by inspection) if the 
> version of the library fixed a spec compliance issue.

I'm not even sure why you would want __version__ in 99% of modules:  in
the ordinary cases, a module's version should be either the Python
version (for a module shipped in the stdlib), or the release of the
distribution which shipped it.  Free-standing, separately-distributed
modules are a huge anomaly

ISTM that other cases (version of a spec targeted by the module, or of
the underlying C library it wraps), need their own attribute.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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