Folks,
with Python 2.3 in all probability going to be included in OSX 10.3 and 
with
lots of nifty new stuff coming available from MacPython developers 
(aeve and
the CF additions, to name just two) we need to come up with a scheme to
gradually introduce these.

Under MacOS9 there was really no problem, because there were so few core
developers. Most new things got done by a small group who had access to
it immediately, and the rest of the world had to wait. Moreover, they
often didn't have to wait all that long, because often I would introduce
stealthily introduce new functionality (if it was backward compatible)
in a minor release. And the MacPython user community was so small that
if someone was a minor release behind and something didn't work it
was easy to make them upgrade.

All of these assertions are going to break with 10.3, or already broken.
There are a lot more developers, and they come up with all sorts of
goodies. But 99.9% of the Python installed base will remain at
MacPython 2.3.0 until MacOSX 10.4 comes out, so sneaking in 
functionality
in 2.3.1 is a strict no-no, as it would potentially break things badly
for people distributing software to third parties.

What I want to do is something similar to "from future import ...",
but it's a bit different. For example, if we have a new Carbon.CF module
then "from MacPython24 import Carbon.CF" won't cut it, because
you really want some sort of a statement that will, from that point
on, *everything* to use the new module. Carbon.CF is a prime example,
because it is also used under the hood: the core Python engine
(and through it extensions like PyObjC) will import it itself
when it needs to create a CF object.

I have a couple of ideas on how to do this, but they're all either
clunky, or contradictory, or both. So: let's hear any bright ideas you 
all have,
please...
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen@[...].nl> , http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman


_______________________________________________
Pythonmac-SIG maillist  -  Pythonmac-SIG@[...].org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig