"Martin v. Löwis", 08.03.2011 23:47:
I think everything here is as it should be. People who really cared
about forwards compatibility could have known, but factually, most
people don't care enough. Those then learn for the first time that
some feature was deprecated after it is actually removed. They then
ask why it is removed, and somebody will tell them.

I was not aware I could turn on deprecation warning for use of the C
API. How can I do that?

Not sure that you can. When I said "could have known", I meant "by
reading the documentation".

I can confirm that the Cython project was as surprised of the PyCapsule change in Python 3.2 as (I guess) most other users, and I would claim that we are a project with one of the highest probabilities of being impacted by C-API changes.

Maybe the "what's new" document could at least include a link to the relevant python-dev discussion/decision, so that fewer people have to ask back?

Actually, why not put up a web page of "upcoming changes" somewhere, that lists major decisions with user impact that were taken on python-dev? Including a link to the relevant discussion and decision. Often enough, decisions are taken inside of huge mailing list threads that get off-topic before someone has "the right idea" and everyone who's still there to listen agrees. Even for people lurking around on python-dev, it's easy enough to miss these moments.

A publicly visible list of those decisions would

a) make it easier for non-core developers to follow important changes on python-dev

b) allow potentially impacted people to bring up their POV more quickly, e.g. during the alpha cycle of a deprecation release rather than the following release, as in this case

c) document the decision taking process by listing the relevant mailing list threads

d) help in writing the "what's new" documents

Stefan

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