PEP 4: Deprecation of standard modules

[Aahz Maruch]

[posted with cc to fdrake because of doc issues]

In article <mailman.971107532.4045.python-list at python.org>,
Michal Wallace  <sabren at manifestation.com> wrote:
>
>Why deprecate modules at all? Why not just move them out of the
>standard distribution and make a home (page) for outcast modules.. As
>long as you can get to this stuff from parnassus, everyone should be
>happy. Or am I missing something?

Well, that's the whole point of deprecating modules.  Before taking the
step of removing modules from the standard distribution, you want to
make sure that people get some advance warning so they can switch to the
appropriate new modules (which is the main reason modules have been
deprecated in the past; see regex and regsub, for example).  They are
also almost always modules that people are not currently using.

But this does suggest to me that perhaps there ought to be a prominent
section in each release for newly deprecated modules; I'm not sure
whether this PEP is sufficient.  There is a section in the library
reference for obsolete modules; I believe current practice is to ship
obsolete modules in the standard distribution for at least one release,
just in case.

Fred, if you want to talk with me about it off-line, feel free to, but
we should probably include Martin von Loewis.
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