On 3/16/07, Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Perhaps you'd like to remind me that "backward compatibilty" includes > the necessity to run new programs on old versions of Python, too?
Ahh, but you see, new programs are the easy part. You actually have at least four choices of different levels of backward compatibility: 1) If you are absolutely sure that the code in your program will never be used to work with filenames with leading dots, you are already finished! (Note that this goal is much easier to achieve if you don't release the source, or at least write it so badly that nobody will want to reuse the code.) 2) If you think that most users of your program won't use filenames with leading dots, and you don't plan on supporting it after a year or so, just make sure it works with 2.5. 3) Conversely, if you're not that bothered about leading dots, and don't think you'll have all the bugs out of your program for a year or so anyway, just wait for 2.6. (All the "cool" potential users of your program will be on the bleeding edge, anyway.) 4) Finally, if you're one of those Luddite sticklers who wants to try to ruin everybody's job security by writing code that works right now and doesn't need to be touched later, just write your own version of this function. I would have suggested that you could reuse the underlying functionality in conjunction with a version check, but it has been pointed out that the existence of tests and docstrings which perfectly match the code is no impediment to change, so Philip might get mad enough to change it back for 3.1, and then your version check would be obsolete. > Then I can stop wasting everyone's time. Even though I am no fonder of > code breakage than I was. Fortunately, for new code (at least for this particular change!), you don't have to worry about breakage. I'm sure this discussion has been so indelibly etched into your brain that you won't forget to check your filename management functions very carefully. Sorry, were you being sarcastic? I didn't realize that. Or am I prevaricating again? Regards, Pat _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com