[ftputil] Which Python version(s) do you use?

[Stefan Schwarzer]

Hi S (real name not disclosed ;-) ),

On 2006-07-21 14:09, Lists In at IDC wrote:
>> When asking my question I had rather those people in mind which work
>> for an employer where the IT infrastructure is difficult for them
>> to influence. For example, such an ftputil user might not be able to
>> update to a recent Python version without discussing it with the
>> whole IT department or management. Ok, perhaps such scenarios are
>> not as frequent as Dilbert cartoons suggest. ;-)
>
> And, since this is a set of utility functions, they're probably
> running it on their own local machine over which they probably have
> complete control.  Not only that, but there's always /usr/local for
> non-offical versions.

In a Python project, we had quite some infrastructure (webserver,
database, application server, ...). We didn't make the effort to
install all this software and the test data on every developer's
machine. Instead, we installed most of the infrastructure only
once on a shared development server. If a developer doesn't have
admin rights on such a server, he can't install ftputil in
/usr/local (however, in his/her home directory, but that doesn't
make sense, if code using ftputil should be used in production).

So my current point of view is: The step from Python 2.1 to
Python 2.2 is the most significant up all updates so far. Python
2.3 gives a bit more. Python 2.4 doesn't provide much more than
Python 2.3 (compared with the steps from 2.1 to 2.2, or 2.2 to
2.3). Ok, there are very useful additions, e. g. decorators or
the subprocess module, but those aren't particularly needed by
ftputil (at least not yet).

>> So now the question doesn't no longer seem to be if ftputil should
>> require Python 2.2.1, but rather if ftputil should/could require an
>> even higher version! Python 2.3 or 2.4? ftputil users, speak up! :-)
>
> 2.4, and I'd suggest NOT programming around any deficiencies in early
> 2.4.x versions -- anyone using any major (2.4.xx) branch of a
> language would be well advised to keep up with the minor security/bug
> fix versions and wasting programming effort on workarounds is never
> productive.

I'm not sure of this. You should install security updates, true.
On the other hand, some minor Python versions don't include
security fixes but add new features. To avoid confusion among
developers using Python 2.x.y (0 <= y <= ymax), I would only
require 2.x(.0) instead of 2.x.ymax.

Stefan