[Tutor] Python 2.1 vs 2.2?

[Paul Sidorsky]

Kojo Idrissa wrote:

> Can someone remind me of the major diffs between 2.1 and 2.2?  Specifically
> 2.1.3 and 2.2.1.  I'm planing to get the ActiveState stuff for my Win2K
> partiion.

Generators, better type-class integration, nested scoping as default,
etc.  There's not really much that's not covered in the What's New doc.

I'm not familiar with ActivePython, though.  It could have other
differences that need to be considered, but I doubt it.

> Is the 2.1.x branch the stable one, while 2.2.x is more "under
> development"?  Any real functional diffs?  I'm still using "Learning
> Python", "Programming Python for Win32" and a couple of other 1.5.2 books,
> so I doubt I'm advanced enough to really notice.

2.1 is only more stable in that it's on the 3rd bugfix release while 2.2
has so far had just one, but that's minor.  "Unstable" versions of
Python are alpha, beta, and candidate releases and have an a, b, or c
after their numbers, respectively.  (2.3a1 is due out in less than 2
weeks.)  

> I scanned A. Kuchling's "What's New in 2.2", but I just wanted to make sure
> I'm getting the "best" thing.

Unless you have to maintain strict compatibility with 2.1 and can't
afford to risk a major version change, get 2.2.1.  More generally,
always get the latest version of Python unless you have a good reason
not to.

-- 
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Paul Sidorsky                                          Calgary, Canada
paulsid@shaw.ca                        http://members.shaw.ca/paulsid/