[Python-Dev] Module version variable

Thu Mar 17 00:22:53 CET 2011

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On 03/16/2011 06:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On 3/16/2011 5:54 PM, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Raymond Hettinger
>> <raymond.hettinger at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ..
>>> The version number in the decimal module refers to the version of the
>>> spec that is being complied with. I would like that version number
>>> to remain in the module.
>>>> I mentioned this in my first post. If the version number of the spec
>> is important, shouldn't it be called something else?
>> I agree, especially if we need to issue a new version of the library 
> that implements the same spec. We couldn't upgrade __version__, since 
> it's used for the spec. There'd be no way to know (by inspection) if the 
> version of the library fixed a spec compliance issue.

I'm not even sure why you would want __version__ in 99% of modules: in
the ordinary cases, a module's version should be either the Python
version (for a module shipped in the stdlib), or the release of the
distribution which shipped it. Free-standing, separately-distributed
modules are a huge anomaly
ISTM that other cases (version of a spec targeted by the module, or of
the underlying C library it wraps), need their own attribute.
Tres.
- -- 
===================================================================
Tres Seaver +1 540-429-0999 tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software "Excellence by Design" http://palladion.com
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