[Python-Dev] PEP 413: Faster evolution of the Python Standard Library

[Antoine Pitrou]

Hello,

On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:24:27 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> To allow the PEP 407 authors to focus on making the case for doing
> full CPython releases every 6 months (including language spec
> updates), I've created PEP 413 as a competing proposal.
> 
> It leaves the current language versioning (and rate of change) alone,
> while adding an additional date based standard library version number
> and adopting a new development workflow that will allow "standard
> library" releases to be made alongside each new maintenance release.

Overall, I like the principle of this PEP, but I really dislike the
dual version numbering it introduces. Such a numbering scheme will be
cryptic and awkward for anyone but Python specialists.

I also think the branches and releases management should be even
simpler:

- 2.7: as today
- 3.3: bug fixes + stdlib enhancements
- default: language enhancements / ABI-breaking changes

Every 6 months, a new stdlib + bugfix release would be cut (3.3.1,
3.3.2, etc.), while language enhancement releases (3.4, 3.5...) would
still happen every 18 months.

If people really want some bugfix releases without any stdlib
enhancements, we have two solutions:

- let them handle patch maintenance themselves
- have a community-maintained bugfix branch or repo somewhere, where
  interested contributors can backport selected bugfixes

Regards

Antoine.