Subject: Re: [PATCH] Third try at documenting command integration requirements.

From: "Eric S. Raymond" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:56:19 -0500

Michael Haggerty <[email-masked]>:
> OK, now let's discuss *which* minimum Python version that git should
> support in the hypothetical new world...

By all means!
 
> It would be a shame to leave RHEL 5 users behind if Python is used to
> implement important git functionality.  Python 2.4 is missing some of
> Python's shiny new features, but still quite OK.  What features would
> you miss the most if we were to target Python 2.4 instead of 2.6?

Off the top of my head...the 'with' statement, the conditional
expression, and built-in JSON support.  Other developers would be
likely to kick about the string format() method; personally I'm
cheerfully old-school about that.

I agree that 2.4 is still quite OK.  I'm a little concerned that dropping that
far back might store up some transition problems for the day we decide to
make the jump to Python 3.

On the other hand, I think gating features on RHEL5 might be
excessively cautious.  According to [1], RHEL will red-zone within 30
days if it hasn't done so already ([1] says "Q4").  And RHEL6 (with
Python 2.6) has been shipping for two years.

Policy suggestion: we aim to stay friendly for every version of RHEL that
is still in Support 1.  I doubt anyone will code anything critical 
in Python before Dec 31st - I'm certainly not planning to!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux RHEL5 is going
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>