PEP 236: Back to the __future__

[Konrad Hinsen]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> writes:

> Incompatible changes have been made with virtually every Python release since
> before 1.0.  The changes are *usually* so minor and affect so little code
> that few people notice them in practice (for example, how many people were

Indeed. I have been using Python since 1.3 and never had to change a
single line due to language changes, and only very few lines due to
library changes (regular expressions).

> And you've managed to do that despite a decade of incompatible language
> changes already.  Why *assume* the future is going to be so much worse than
> the past?  Perhaps because it hasn't happened yet <wink>?

I have the impression that Python development has been speeding up
recently compared to the good old days. I used to install all alpha
and beta releases, and now I didn't even find the time to install 2.0
between 1.5.2 and 2.1. (I admit there might be personal reasons as
well, work is taking a lot of potential Python-playing time away from
me.)

> It won't break in 2.1, but you'll get warnings about fishy cases in 2.1, and
> the __future__ stmt will let you know for sure and change such code at your
> convenience.

Perfectly fine unless 2.2 comes out four weeks after 2.1. ;-)

living-in-ever-more-rapidly-changing-times'ly
    Konrad.
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