[4suite] Re: [XML-SIG] Python 1.5 support with PyXML 0.6.2/4Suite0.9.2

[Alexandre Fayolle]

On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Uche Ogbuji wrote:

> Exactly.  Let's hear from those whom this would affect.  Possibly
> there's no problem.  My personal feelings are that if character
> conversions are a big need, it should make it all the more urgent to
> migrate to Python 2.0.

I may be completely missing the point, if so please correct me. 

I'm fully aware of what unicode can bring in terms of internationalisation
of a software product, especially since I live in a place where 8bits
character encoding is quite common. However switching to Python 2 right
now seems difficult:

 * a huge number of people are using redhat 6.x distros, and upgrading to
python2.0 on such a box is not a trivial task.
 * as it has been pointed out before, there are binary compatibility
issues with some utility libraries (programs will still run under linux,
but Win32 platforms will fail completely)

It is important that people providing base libraries (such as 4Suite or
PyXML) do the move first, since people putting up application depend on
these libraries. But I feel that completely abandonning 1.5.2 support now
is too early, because most library providers still don't have make the
step, and since the vast majority of users is still dazzled by the 1.6/2.0
conflicts and may be having problems upgrading to Python 2.0 due to
distribution problems or local administration policies.

Alexandre Fayolle
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