[Zope-dev] RE: [Zope] REQUIRING Python 2.1??

[Martijn Pieters]

On Fri, Apr 13, 2001 at 12:10:52PM -0400, anser wrote:
> > You may have more than one Python installation on a machine. This in no
> > way forces you to move "all of your applications" to 2.1. The binary
> > releases in particular make this drop-dead easy; they come with a bundled
> > Python, and do not affect any other Python you may have in any way.
> 
> right, but by the same token the binary releases won't require special 
> warnings to people about upgrading to 2.1.

We made no such warnings. We warn people that follow the bleeding-edge
head of the trunk taht we will be switching soon.

> > And
> > note that Zope is a pretty diverse community - just because i18n
> > is not very important to _you_ does not mean it is not important.
> > There are plenty who consider it hugely significant, and who
> > are at least as perturbed that we _haven't_ done this yet.
> 
> The question is not whether i18n ought to be done, but whether you ought to 
> require upgrading to Py 2.1 to achieve it.

Yes, we will require 2.1 to do that, because Unicode support in 1.5.2 is
not by far adequate for our needs. The pain of trying to support our own
Unicode libraries is too great to justify keeping to support 1.5.2. THis
is apart from the other advantages that Python 2.1 offers.

> >> On the basis of prior performance I do not expect this objection to make
> >> any difference in what DC does, but I needed to express it anyway.
> >
> > You may find that making your objections in a less inflammatory
> > way will give them more impact.
> 
> I do not know how one would measure "impact" in order to test this 
> proposition. If "impact" means changing DC policy or software in any way, 
> then I suspect as previously stated that hearts+flowers wouldn't get it 
> done either.  If "impact" means that the question would get a response, 
> well, this thread's existence may be a counterexample.
> 
> What I do know is that requiring an upgrade to a not-yet-gold Py release as 
> a prerequisite to the next Zope release is unwise software policy.

That is not the policy. The Zope 2.4 release will require 2.1, and
development of that release will start *after* Python 2.1 goes gold. This
is clearly stated in the linked documents in the warning email.

The next stable release may very well (very probably) be a 2.3.3 release.
Which will still be a Python 1.5.2 release. I have the idea that you think
that either the 2.3.x line will switch to Python 2.1 now (and 2.3.3 is to be
released soon) or that no more development on the 2.3.x line will occur.

-- 
Martijn Pieters
| Software Engineer  mailto:mj@digicool.com
| Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com/
| Creators of Zope   http://www.zope.org/
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