[Twisted-Python] Removing Python 2.6 Support after Twisted 15.1

[Phil Mayers]

On 18/03/15 10:45, HawkOwl wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As Python 2.6 has been officially abandoned for a year+ (and will
> receive no further official security updates) and Python 2.7 has been
> available for almost five years, it might be time to put Python 2.6
> support to bed. The only currently supported distro that has Python
> 2.6 is RHEL6, and RHEL7 with Python 2.7 has now been out for a year.
>
> This would be in line with other major projects (eg. Django, Plone)
> and Python's porting guide
> (https://docs.python.org/3/howto/pyporting.html#drop-support-for-python-2-6-and-older).
> We can also remove some things from TestCase, and there's random
> smatterings of 2.6 support workarounds/comments that we could also
> remove.
>
> As such, I think we should make 15.1 the final release which
> officially supports Python 2.6.
>
> Any objections?

Objectively it seems reasonable.

Subjectively, it'll substantially inconvenience me (and others who have 
RH/CentOS 6 systems which will be in service for years more).

In the past, we've built and deployed a newer Python when this has 
happened e.g. RHEL4/5. That was a huge pain in the arse, and we don't 
intend to repeat it. Absent an EPEL package for python27, I suspect many 
people will do what we intend to do - stop updating Twisted.

Expect to see queries from people on older versions they can't update 
for some time ;o)

In all seriousness, I guess it depends on how useful this is. Being "in 
line" with other projects doesn't seem like a useful goal - who cares 
what Plone does? If it's useful for Twisted, then do it.