Robert Kern wrote: > So he can make an informed decision about how far back he should > maintain compatibility?
I wasn't asking you! ;) Depending on what kind of software this is, who the potential users are, how the software will be distributed etc, the importance of being backward compatible varies from essential to completely irrelevant. As usual, knowing more background makes it easier to help. It would be a pity to miss out on really useful new features in Python 2.4 while coding, and then end up bundling a Python interpreter in the software installations anyway. It's obviously more relevant to maintain compatibility with older Python versions if we're talking about an open source Python package that might be of use to the typical Python programmer who uses Linux. To name a few concrete examples, Zope typically bundles its own python in the installation, and can work with just one version and let other software on the same machine use another python of a different version. Twisted supports 2.2 - 2.4, but will probably skip 2.2 support fairly soon, and since it uses some new Python features, some backported Python libraries are included in Twisted, and that creates a maintenance cost. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list