[Python-Dev] Open PEPs and large-scale changes for 3.3

[Georg Brandl]

On 01.05.2012 17:48, "Martin v. Löwis" wrote:
>> * PEP 397: Python launcher for Windows
> 
> I hope to submit a rewrite of this PEP RSN.

Good to hear.

>> Also, if I missed any obvious candidate PEP or change, please let me know.
> 
> A big pending change is the switch to a new Visual Studio release. The 
> challenge here is that we need to stop using the outdated VS 2008, but
> then, VS 2010 will soon be outdated as well, so it would be sad (IMO)
> if we switch from one outdated tool to the next.
> 
> Therefore, I would really like to see Python 3.3 use VS 2012, except
> that this won't be released for a few more months (the release is likely
> along with the release for Windows 8, which likely happens "this
> summer").
> 
> So what specific VS release we use may depend on whether there will be
> another alpha release or not (but it may also be that another alpha 
> release still won't buy enough time, so that we use VS 2008 for 2.7,
> VS 2010 for 3.3, and VS 2012 for 3.4).

Do you know when a more detailed schedule for VS 2012 will be available
(and confirmation regarding XP support)?  While I agree that it would be
best to use the most up-to-date toolchain, we shouldn't defer the beta stage
indefinitely if there is no concrete date set.

> P.S. There is (as of yet unconfirmed) rumor that VS 2012 won't support
> XP, which would clearly rule it out for Python 3.3, and likely also for
> 3.4. It also appears that VS 2012 might include the VS 2010 tool chain,
> which means that this tool chain won't be that outdated.
> 
> P.P.S. this affects primarily the build files and the packaging,
> but then also affects distutils etc., and the buildbots - for the
> latter, switching the VS version likely means that all Windows buildbots
> will break, likely requiring several months for them to come back.

Which is definitely not something we want to do during beta stage.

Georg