making python scripts backwards compatible

[Martin v. Löwis]

joost_jacob at hotmail.com (J.Jacob) writes:

> So the request is this: 

>From whom are you requesting this?

> If you write code that could be used by people or systems
> based on python 1.5.2 please make sure your code is
> backwards compatible to 1.5.2.  

The code in question (SimpleXMLRPCServer) could *not* be used by
people or systems based on Python 1.5.2, since you took it from the
standard libary of a later Python version. Such code can only work
with the Python executable that it came with.

Even for code that *is* designed and maintained to work across
different Python versions, this request is unreasonable.

I dropped support for Python 1.5.2 from PyXML a few days ago, after
asking users whether they would care. Redhat responded that they still
ship Python 1.5.2, and will continue to do so throughout Redhat 7.x.
However, they also pointed out that there *is* a Python 2.x
distribution in recent Redhat releases, so users can install it if
they want to.

The net result is that PyXML 0.8 will not support Python 1.5.2
anymore, and that Redhat therefore won't incorporate PyXML 0.8 in any
of the Redhat 7.x releases.

If you wonder why I dropped 1.5.2 support: I just had to delete my
last Python 1.5.2 installation, since the Redhat installations at my
office got replaced with SuSE 8.0.

Regards,
Martin