[stdlib-sig] Breaking out the stdlib

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Barry Warsaw wrote:
> On Sep 15, 2009, at 1:54 PM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> 
>> Python's reputation will certainly get tarnished, however, if
>> widely-used modules get deprecated and removed. We will already get some
>> damage with all of the py3k changes. No need to worsen our case, IMO.
> 
> I don't view this any differently than language evolution. [...]
> 
> The stdlib is the same IMO.  It must evolve and that means cleaning out
> the cobwebs from time to time.  We can do it in a way that gives full
> disclosure and ample time to adjust, but I really don't have any
> sympathy for libraries and applications that /never/ want to update,
> even though I've been on that side many times. 

I think that the stdlib needs a slightly different approach -
the changes we apply in the language hardly ever cause serious
breakage of code (except maybe the Py_ssize_t change, but folks
won't notice until everyone starts running Python on Linux/x64
machines ;-).

Removing a complete set of APIs or even a complete concept to
approaching a problem is different, though. Those are major
changes.

I guess its time for a PEP outlining how such changes should
be handled and which time frames to apply (release cycles can
change, so years is probably a better unit).

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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