[Python-Dev] When to remove deprecated stuff (was: Deprecating the formatter module)

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 15 Aug 2013 08:29:35 -0400
"R. David Murray" <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:22:14 +0200, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> > On Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:16:20 +0200
> > Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 2013/8/15 Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net>:
> > > > We don't have any substantial change in store for an eventual "Python
> > > > 4", so it's quite a remote hypothesis right now.
> > > 
> > > I prefered the transition between Linux 2 and Linux 3 (no major
> > > change, just a "normal" release except the version), rather than the
> > > transition between KDE 3 and KDE 4 (in short, everything was broken,
> > > the desktop was not usable).
> > > 
> > > I prefer to not start a list of things that we will make the
> > > transition from Python 3 to Python 4 harder. Can't we do small changes
> > > between each Python release, even between major versions?
> > 
> > That's exactly what I'm saying.
> > But some changes cannot be made without breakage, e.g. the unicode
> > transition. Then it makes sense to bundle all breaking changes in a
> > single version change.
> 
> A number of us (I don't know how many) have clearly been thinking about
> "Python 4" as the time when we remove cruft.  This will not cause any
> backward compatibility issues for anyone who has paid heed to the
> deprecation warnings, but will for those who haven't.

Which is why we shouldn't silence deprecation warnings.

Regards

Antoine.