Watershed Python Versions

[Ted]

I would like to collect opinions on which versions of Python should be
considered watershed versions. By this I mean versions which are
stable and contain significant landmark features.

As an example, in Windows operating systems, I would consider Windows
98SE to be the pre-NT watershed release and Windows 2K to be the
post-NT release.

Thanks.

 

[Ville Vainio]

Ted> I would like to collect opinions on which versions of Python
Ted> should be considered watershed versions. By this I mean
Ted> versions which are stable and contain significant landmark
Ted> features.

All Python versions are (supposed to be) stable .

I think it's generally perceived that 2.2 is a watershed version. It's
the introduction of "modern" Python, with iterators, generators and
new style classes.

2.0 might be also - 1.5.2 is the last "old" Python, and the version
that has no doubt been irritating to many, due to Red Hat using it as
the default Python in the old versions (pre 8.0). In fact I found
writing for Python 1.5.2 almost intolerable, having to do without a+=1
(writing a=a+1 instead, ah, the pain). ISTR list comprehensions were
introduced back on 2.0 too, but I really started loving them on 2.1
era.

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

As an example, in Windows operating systems, I would consider Windows
98SE to be the pre-NT watershed release and Windows 2K to be the
post-NT release.

NT preceded W98, based on my experience... Almost preceded W95
if you consider NT3.51.

--

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Martin_v=2E_L=F6wis=22?=]

NT preceded W98, based on my experience... Almost preceded W95
if you consider NT3.51.

Why "almost"? I have used NT 3.1 in '93 or so. There was no mentioning
of a DOS-based Win32 implementation except for Win32s at that time, and
NT was considered the successor, to both Win3.1 and OS/2. NT predates
Win 3.11.

Regards,
Martin

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

Why "almost"? I have used NT 3.1 in '93 or so. There was no mentioning
of a DOS-based Win32 implementation except for Win32s at that time, and
NT was considered the successor, to both Win3.1 and OS/2. NT predates
Win 3.11.

The changes that took place from NT3.x to 4.x make NT4 almost as
great a change as that from WfW3.11 to W95...

So... to me, NT didn't really "take" until 4.x

--

 

[Peter Hansen]

The changes that took place from NT3.x to 4.x make NT4 almost as
great a change as that from WfW3.11 to W95...

So... to me, NT didn't really "take" until 4.x

NT didn't 'take' until Windows XP...

 

[Aahz]

Ted> I would like to collect opinions on which versions of Python
Ted> should be considered watershed versions. By this I mean
Ted> versions which are stable and contain significant landmark
Ted> features.

All Python versions are (supposed to be) stable .

More or less, yup.

I think it's generally perceived that 2.2 is a watershed version. It's
the introduction of "modern" Python, with iterators, generators and
new style classes.

2.0 might be also - 1.5.2 is the last "old" Python, and the version
that has no doubt been irritating to many, due to Red Hat using it as
the default Python in the old versions (pre 8.0). In fact I found
writing for Python 1.5.2 almost intolerable, having to do without a+=1
(writing a=a+1 instead, ah, the pain). ISTR list comprehensions were
introduced back on 2.0 too, but I really started loving them on 2.1
era.

That's roughly correct, although the big news in 2.0 was Unicode. Other
critical additions were string methods, augmented assignment, and garbage
collection. See the "What's New" section of
http://www.amk.ca/python/

Generally speaking, although all released Python versions have been
extremely stable by industry standards, my preference is to wait for the
first bugfix release of the first major version after a watershed
version. IOW, good releases would be 2.1.x and 2.3.x.

 

[Michael Hudson]

I would like to collect opinions on which versions of Python should be
considered watershed versions. By this I mean versions which are
stable and contain significant landmark features.

As others have said, all versions are pretty stable. 2.2 was a
landmark release. At all times, I would contend that the best release
to start a new project with is the most recent (so, now, 2.3.4).

Cheers,
mwh