[Twisted-Python] Python 2.2 Support

Jean-Paul Calderone exarkun at divmod.com
Sat Nov 5 19:26:57 MST 2005


On Sun, 6 Nov 2005 12:14:08 +1100, Christopher Armstrong <radeex at gmail.com> wrote:
>On 11/6/05, Jean-Paul Calderone <exarkun at divmod.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 17:00:14 +1100, Christopher Armstrong <radeex at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >On 10/11/05, Jonathan Lange <jml at mumak.net> wrote:
>> >> Should we drop Python 2.2 support in Subversion head for Twisted 2.2?
>> >
>> >I consider this issue resolved, given the lack of response for people
>> >wanting 2.2 support. The buildslave for 2.2 should be taken down and
>> >Twisted trunk should be considered fair for 2.3-only features.
>>
>> Lack of interest in a change doesn't dictate that the change be made.  I didn't hear anyone come out against the change _or_ for it.
>>
>> If it will help, I'll throw in against dropping 2.2 support.  Neither 2.3 nor 2.4 introduce any compelling new features.
>
>You are confused. At least two people were *for* dropping 2.2 support
>in this thread, and nobody was against it. I'm pretty sure several
>others have been for dropping it on IRC, as well.

Confused, perhaps.  Or perhaps their positions were voiced with such limited enthusiasm I just forgot about them :)

>
>I have seen people several times commit code that requires 2.3,
>realize that the buildbot failed, and replace the code with a more
>complicated version (didn't you do this recently yourself, Jp?). I
>personally find it harder and harder to test 2.2, as finding an
>installation of 2.2 is getting rarer these days. To unshamedly list
>features from the "What's new in Python 2.3" article:

Yea, I've probably done this, and I've seen a few other people do it too.  Fortunately, buildbot's new "build a branch" feature should help resolve this problem.  Anyone can try out their code on any of Twisted's supported platforms before merging it into trunk.

>- Sets
>- Proper booleans (2.2.0 didn't even have the "True" and "False" constants)
>- enumerate
>- csv
>- generators without __future__
>- sum
>- callable types
>- horrible obscure Python2.2-only bugs and semantics changes gone
>- str in str
>- arguments-to-strip
>
>These are all pretty minor (apart from the "horrible obscure" things),
>but the sum() of them adds up to a lot of annoyance in support when no
>users have actually thrown in for it.

It's a pretty good list, I must admit.  But I wonder what the specific gains to Twisted will be.  Just having a list of things Python 2.3 can do that Python 2.2 cannot does not seem compelling to me.

Jean-Paul




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