[Zope-dev] dropping Python 2.4 support in the Zope Toolkit?

[Tres Seaver]

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Martin Aspeli wrote:
> Hanno Schlichting wrote:
> 
>> Personally I don't care if the ZTK doesn't officially support Python 2.4
>> anymore, as long as nobody will try to actively remove Python 2.4
>> support. For my part I'd be happy to take care of the BBB support for
>> those packages I use.
> 
> I think this would be acceptable as well, *if* supporting Python 2.4 in 
> ZTK became more of a burden than an inconvenience.
> 
> We can run the tests before a release. We don't need every developer to 
> do everything in triplicate just because we support different versions. 
> And of course, those who are interested in Python 2.4 compatibility 
> should cough up and contribute to make that work.
> 
> And as I've said all along: if some package really want or need to use 
> things that are part of 2.5 but not 2.4, then that's a good argument 
> *for* breaking compatibility in those cases. I just have a problem with 
> putting the "burden of proof" on those who argue for not breaking with 
> the platforms we currently support.

The "burden of proof" *is* the work you just signed up the "preserve
2.4" group for:  monitoring the packages they care about for things
which break under 2.4, and proposing 2.4-compatible fixes.

If that group doesn't self-organize, then 2.4 compatibility is literally
moot, because the core developers are never going to know that they have
broken something under 2.4.

Note as well that the mere presence of certain kinds of BBB code is a
burden on the core maintainers.  Conditional imports, for instance,
create untestable code paths, as do other kinds of "capability" checks.
 Removing that kind of cruft increases the quality of the codebase, at
the expense of backward compatibility.

Note as well that users who cannot upgrade Python (or Zope) ought not to
feel obliged to upgrade the underlying bits, either:  stability requires
non-trivial tradeoffs.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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