python24-26 policy

[Ned Deily]

In article <44C1F45B-F327-4721-910A-BFAC5319489F at orcaware.com>,
 Blair Zajac <blair at orcaware.com> wrote:
> On Dec 8, 2012, at 5:52 PM, Ned Deily wrote:
> > WRT Python itself: Python 2.4.x and 2.5.x are no longer supported in any 
> > way by the PSF Python project (www.python.org).  Python 2.6.x is in 
> > security-fix-only mode until October 2013.  Python 2.7 is current and in 
> > an extended maintenance mode period (bug fixes, security fixes, no new 
> > features); no date has yet been established for when it will move to 
> > security-fix-only mode.   Python 2.7.x is the final release series for 
> > Python 2.
> My take its up to the maintainer, if they want to maintain Python modules for 
> older releases, they can.  I don't think we should go out of the way to 
> remove support for older Python releases.  Regardless of when Python 2.7.x 
> moves to security-fix-mode, I strongly feel we should maintain that ongoingly 
> for a long long time.

Certainly it's up to any project to determine what they want to support.  
Keep in mind, though, that the older releases, like 2.4.x and 2.5.x, 
were retired or in security-fix-only mode prior to the release of 
current OS X and Xcode versions, so the last upstream versions are 
missing fixes added to current Python releases to handle newer 
compilers, deprecated APIs, 64-bit support etc.   Apple itself has been 
burned by that, i.e. the broken system Python 2.5 currently shipped with 
10.8.  You'll need to continue to maintain and test your own patches to 
provide support for obsolete versions on newer OS releases.

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 nad at acm.org