PEP 238 (revised)

[Erik Max Francis]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> Requiring a version specifier in all new code is very annoying.  The
> future statement is annyoing too, but at least it's a transitional
> measure.

But when you have substantial and fundamental language changes coming
down the pipe, it looks more and more attracive.  A version specifier
need not be required in all code, but if the language keeps changing I
don't really see a better alternative to being able to put a stake in
the ground when you're writing an application or library.

If a program won't work in a differently-versioned interpreter, then
it's best to get that out of the way right at the start of the program
before going any further.  It's far better for a program/library to
break cleanly in a way that makes it clear what's wrong, rather than
either failing silently or behaving erratically and unpredictably.

-- 
 Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
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