[Python-Dev] Future of 2.x.

Wed Jun 9 18:13:20 CEST 2010

Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
> On Jun 09, 2010, at 04:42 PM, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>> >Many of them are not keen on having to maintain Python2 for much
> >longer, but some of them may have assets codified in Python2
> >or interests based Python2 that they'll want to keep for
> >more than just another 5 years.
> >
> >E.g. we still have customers that are on Python 2.3 and have
> >just recently considered moving to Python 2.5. Depending on where
> >you look, motivations are rather diverse.
> >
> >It's certainly not fair to require all core developers to
> >continue working on Python2, but it would also be unfair to
> >cancel out that possibility for a subset of interested devs.
> >Even more so, since it doesn't really create any extra work
> >for those that have no interest.
>> Note that Python 2.7 will be *maintained* for a very long time, which
> should satisfy those folks who still require Python 2. Anybody on
> older (and currently unmaintained) versions of Python 2 will not care
> about new features so a Python 2.8 wouldn't help them anyway.

There are two kinds of new features, though. Those added to improve (or
at any rate modify :-) the product, and those added to keep the product
relevant to a changing external world (new operating systems, new
communication protocols, etc.) I think it would take a pretty strong
crystal ball to be able to rule out the latter kind of feature add from
the 2.x line.
Bill