Re: Last patch breaks Py 2.3 compatibility

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Hi,

Sorry for slight hiatus in responding, email client problems here (sigh)

On 7 Jul 2011, at 11:05, Christoph Zwerschke wrote:

> Am 07.07.2011 00:04 schrieb Ian Bicking:
>> I ended up reverting that change because it also broke tests, and  
>> once I
>> looked at it I didn't understand the purpose anyway.  Not that I mind
>> dropping 2.3 support ;)
>
> Since the 2to3 patch by Graham Higgins also requires Py 2.4, dropping
> 2.3 support would be a step forward I think.

For completeness, I'd have preferred to have 2.3 coverage but ...

The omission of 2.3 was simply (but significantly) because I couldn't  
get the official tarball to compile on ubuntu natty - which otherwise  
provides distro package support for 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 3.1 and 3.2.  
There's a separate, individually-maintained "deadsnakes" ppa which  
provides a suitable 2.4 package (bless their little cotton socks) but  
for 2.3 one is left with the "./configure && make" option - which  
blows out on both my laptop and the server. Obviously, a CentOS 4 VM  
would likely do the trick but even at that the relentless march of  
time means that supporting 2.3 is edging towards becoming  
disproportionately expensive in maintenance terms.

> If we drop it, I am willing to go through the code and simplify it  
> based
> on Py 2.4 (use decorators etc.)

There's a current GSOC project aimed at porting webob to Python 3.  
The project kicked off with a test sprint aimed at achieving 100%  
test coverage, considered to be a highly desirable precondition for a  
robust port and also no bad thing in itself. I suspect formencode  
would similarly benefit from extended test coverage. It took 'em  
three days, mind.

> But I suggest creating a final 1.2.5 release with Py 2.3 support  
> before
> doing this and then having a 1.3 which requires Py 2.4 after the
> overhaul, maybe already with Graham's patch.

Makes a lot of sense to me, fwiw. My perspective here is enlightened  
self-interest (as a formencode user) and a respect for formencode's  
extensive existing i18n .po coverage, an aspect whose importance is  
sometimes severely under-appreciated by native English speaking  
developers (though I note this is definitely not true of Ian). And  
I've seen a few "formencode is dead, it isn't being supported"  
misperceptions being bruited about on IRC.

I'd certainly be prepared to set up another CI job to track and  
support a development repository if that's perceived as a useful  
contribution. I'll also pitch in with the coding where I can (I'm a  
cognitive psychologist by trade, not a pro coder).

Cheers,

Graham Higgins

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