[Python-Dev] Proposal: go back to enabling DeprecationWarning by default

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Ethan Furman writes:

 > Suffering from DeprecationWarnings is not "being hosed".  Having
 > your script/application/framework suddenly stop working because
 > nobody noticed something was being deprecated is "being hosed".

OK, so suffering from DeprecationWarnings is not "being hosed".
Nevertheless, it's a far greater waste of my time (supervising
students in business and economics with ~50% annual turnover) than is
"suddenly stop working", even though it only takes 1-5 minutes each
time to explain how to do whatever seems appropriate.  "Suddenly
stopped working", in fact, hasn't happened to me yet in that
environment.

It's not hard to understand why: the student downloads Python, and
doesn't upgrade within the life cycle of the software they've written.
It becomes obsolete upon graduation, and is archived, never to be used
again.  I don't know how common this kind of environment is, so I
can't say it's terribly important, but AIUI Python should be pleasant
to use in this context.

Unfortunately I have no time to contribute code or even useful ideas
to the end of making it more likely that Those Who Can Do Something
    (a) see the DeprecationWarning and
    (b) are made sufficiently itchy that they actually scratch,
and that Those Who Cannot Do Anything, or are limited to suggesting
that something be done, not see it.

So I'll shut up now, having contributed this user story.

Steve

-- 
Associate Professor              Division of Policy and Planning Science
http://turnbull/sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/     Faculty of Systems and Information
Email: turnbull at sk.tsukuba.ac.jp                   University of Tsukuba
Tel: 029-853-5175                 Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN