[Python-Dev] Breaking up the stdlib (Was: release cadence)

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 5:53 PM, Petr Viktorin <encukou at gmail.com> wrote:
> If packages had a way to opt-out of needing the whole standard library,
> and instead specify the stdlib subset they need, answering questions
> like "will this run on my phone?" and "what piece of the stdlib do we
> want to port next?" would be easier.

On the flip side, answering questions like "what version of Python do
people need to run my program" become harder to answer, particularly
if you have third-party dependencies. (The latest version of numpy
might decide that it's going to 'import statistics', for instance.)
One of the arguments against splitting the stdlib was that corporate
approval for software is often hard to obtain, and it's much easier to
say "I need approval to use Python, exactly as distributed by
python.org" than "I need approval to use Python-core plus these five
Python-stdlib sections".

ChrisA