python-peps/pep-0200.txt

PEP: 200
Title: Python 2.0 Release Schedule
Version: $Revision$
Author: Jeremy Hylton <jeremy@zope.com>
Python-Version: 2.0
Status: Final


Introduction

    This PEP describes the Python 2.0 release schedule, tracking the
    status and ownership of the major new features, summarizes
    discussions held in mailing list forums, and provides URLs for
    further information, patches, and other outstanding issues.  The
    CVS revision history of this file contains the definitive
    historical record.

Release Schedule
    [revised 5 Oct 2000]

    26-Sep-2000: 2.0 beta 2
     9-Oct-2000: 2.0 release candidate 1 (2.0c1)
    16-Oct-2000: 2.0 final

Previous milestones
    14-Aug-2000: All 2.0 PEPs finished / feature freeze
     5-Sep-2000: 2.0 beta 1

What is release candidate 1?

    We believe that release candidate 1 will fix all known bugs that
    we intend to fix for the 2.0 final release.  This release should
    be a bit more stable than the previous betas.  We would like to
    see even more widespread testing before the final release, so we
    are producing this release candidate.  The final release will be
    exactly the same unless any show-stopping (or brown bag) bugs are
    found by testers of the release candidate.

Guidelines for submitting patches and making changes

    Use good sense when committing changes.  You should know what we
    mean by good sense or we wouldn't have given you commit privileges
    <0.5 wink>.  Some specific examples of good sense include:

    - Do whatever the dictator tells you.

    - Discuss any controversial changes on python-dev first.  If you
      get a lot of +1 votes and no -1 votes, make the change.  If you
      get a some -1 votes, think twice; consider asking Guido what he
      thinks.

    - If the change is to code you contributed, it probably makes
      sense for you to fix it.

    - If the change affects code someone else wrote, it probably makes
      sense to ask him or her first.

    - You can use the SF Patch Manager to submit a patch and assign it
      to someone for review.

    Any significant new feature must be described in a PEP and
    approved before it is checked in.

    Any significant code addition, such as a new module or large
    patch, must include test cases for the regression test and
    documentation.  A patch should not be checked in until the tests
    and documentation are ready.

    If you fix a bug, you should write a test case that would have
    caught the bug.

    If you commit a patch from the SF Patch Manager or fix a bug from
    the Jitterbug database, be sure to reference the patch/bug number
    in the CVS log message.  Also be sure to change the status in the
    patch manager or bug database (if you have access to the bug
    database).

    It is not acceptable for any checked in code to cause the
    regression test to fail.  If a checkin causes a failure, it must
    be fixed within 24 hours or it will be backed out.

    All contributed C code must be ANSI C.  If possible check it with
    two different compilers, e.g. gcc and MSVC.

    All contributed Python code must follow Guido's Python style
    guide.  http://www.python.org/doc/essays/styleguide.html

    It is understood that any code contributed will be released under
    an Open Source license.  Do not contribute code if it can't be
    released this way.


Failing test cases need to get fixed

    We need to resolve errors in the regression test suite quickly.
    Changes should not be committed to the CVS tree unless the
    regression test runs cleanly with the changes applied.  If it
    fails, there may be bugs lurking in the code.  (There may be bugs
    anyway, but that's another matter.)  If the test cases are known
    to fail, they serve no useful purpose.

    test case         platform    date reported
    ---------         --------    -------------
    test_mmap         Win ME      03-Sep-2000       Windows 2b1p2 prelease
        [04-Sep-2000 tim
         reported by Audun S. Runde mailto:audun@mindspring.com
         the mmap constructor fails w/
            WindowsError: [Errno 6] The handle is invalid
         since there are no reports of this failing on other
         flavors of Windows, this looks like to be an ME bug
        ]

Open items -- Need to be resolved before 2.0 final release

    Decide whether cycle-gc should be enabled by default.

    Resolve compatibility issues between core xml package and the
    XML-SIG XML package.

    Update Tools/compiler so that it is compatible with list
    comprehensions, import as, and any other new language features.

    Improve code coverage of test suite.

    Finish writing the PEPs for the features that went out with
    2.0b1(! sad, but realistic -- we'll get better with practice).

    Major effort to whittle the bug database down to size.  I've (tim)
    seen this before: if you can keep all the open bugs fitting on one
    screen, people will generally keep it that way.  But let it
    slobber over a screen for a month, & it just goes to hell (no
    "visible progress" indeed!).

Accepted and in progress

    * Currently none left. [4-Sep-2000 guido]

Open: proposed but not accepted or rejected

    * There are a number of open patches again.  We need to clear
      these out soon.  

Previously failing test cases

    If you find a test bouncing between this section and the previous one,
    the code it's testing is in trouble!

    test case         platform    date reported
    ---------         --------    -------------
    test_fork1        Linux       26-Jul-2000
        [28-aug-2000 fixed by cgw; solution is to create copies of
        lock in child process]
        [19-Aug-2000 tim
         Charles Waldman whipped up a patch to give child processes a new
         "global lock":
         http://sourceforge.net/patch/?func=detailpatch&patch_id=101226&group_id=5470
         While this doesn't appear to address the symptoms we *saw*, it
         *does* so far appear to be fixing the failing cases anyway
        ]

    test_parser       all         22-Aug-2000
    test_posixpath    all         22-Aug-2000

    test_popen2       Win32       26-Jul-2000
        [31-Aug-2000 tim
         This died again, but for an entirely different reason:  it uses a
         dict to map file pointers to process handles, and calls a dict
         access function during popen.close().  But .close releases threads,
         which left the internal popen code accessing the dict without a
         valid thread state.  The dict implementation changed so that's no
         longer accepted.  Fixed by creating a temporary thread state in the
         guts of popen's close routine, and grabbing the global lock with
         it for the duration]
        [20-Aug-2000 tim
         changed the popen2.py _test function to use the "more" cmd
         when os.name == "nt".  This makes test_popen2 pass under
         Win98SE.
         HOWEVER, the Win98 "more" invents a leading newline out
         of thin air, and I'm not sure that the other Windows flavors
         of "more" also do that.
         So, somebody please try under other Windows flavors!
        ]
        [still fails 15-Aug-2000 for me, on Win98 - tim
             test test_popen2 crashed -- exceptions.AssertionError :
         The problem is that the test uses "cat", but there is
         no such thing under Windows (unless you install it).
         So it's the test that's broken here, not (necessarily)
         the code.
        ]

    test_winreg        Win32      26-Jul-2000
        [works 15-Aug-2000 for me, on Win98 - tim]

    test_mmap          Win32      26-Jul-2000
        [believe that was fixed by Mark H.]
        [works 15-Aug-2000 for me, on Win98 - tim]

    test_longexp      Win98+?     15-Aug-2000
        [fails in release build,
         passes in release build under verbose mode but doesn't
             look like it should pass,
         passes in debug build,
         passes in debug build under verbose mode and looks like
             it should pass
        ]
        [18-Aug-2000, tim:  can't reproduce, and nobody else
         saw it.  I believe there *is* a subtle bug in
         regrtest.py when using -v, and I'll pursue that,
         but can't provoke anything wrong with test_longexp
         anymore; eyeballing Fred's changes didn't turn up
         a suspect either
         19-Aug-2000, tim: the "subtle bug" in regrtest.py -v is
         actually a feature:  -v masks *some* kinds of failures,
         since it doesn't compare test output with the canned
         output; this is what makes it say "test passed" even
         in some cases where the test fails without -v
        ]

    test_winreg2      Win32       26-Jul-2000
        [20-Aug-2000 tim - the test has been removed from the project]
        [19-Aug-2000 tim
         This test will never work on Win98, because it's looking for
         a part of registry that doesn't exist under W98.
         The module (winreg.py) and this test case will be removed
         before 2.0 for other reasons, though.
        ]
        [still fails 15-Aug-2000 for me, on Win98 - tim
         test test_winreg2 failed -- Writing: 'Test Failed: testHives',
         expected: 'HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA\012'
        ]


Open items -- completed/fixed

    [4-Sep-2000 guido: Fredrik finished this on 1-Sep]
    * PyErr_Format - Fredrik Lundh
      Make this function safe from buffer overflows.

    [4-Sep-2000 guido: Fred has added popen2, popen3 on 28-Sep]
    Add popen2 support for Linux -- Fred Drake

    [4-Sep-2000 guido: done on 1-Sep]
    Deal with buffering problem with SocketServer

    [04-Sep-2000 tim:  done; installer runs; w9xpopen not an issue]
    [01-Sep-2000 tim:  make a prerelease availabe]
    Windows ME:  Don't know anything about it.  Will the installer
    even run?  Does it need the w9xpopen hack?

    [04-Sep-2000 tim:  done; tested on several Windows flavors now]
    [01-Sep-2000 tim:  completed but untested except on Win98SE]
    Windows installer:  If HKLM isn't writable, back off to HKCU (so
    Python can be installed on NT & 2000 without admin privileges).

    [01-Sep-200 tim - as Guido said, runtime code in posixmodule.c doesn't
     call this on NT/2000, so no need to avoid installing it everywhere.
     Added code to the installer *to* install it, though.]
    Windows installer:  Install w9xpopen.exe only under Win95/98.

    [23-Aug-2000 jeremy - tim reports "completed recently"]
    Windows:  Look for registry info in HKCU before HKLM - Mark
    Hammond.

    [20-Aug-2000 tim - done]
    Remove winreg.py and test_winreg2.py.  Paul Prescod (the author)
    now wants to make a registry API more like the MS .NET API.  Unclear
    whether that can be done in time for 2.0, but, regardless, if we
    let winreg.py out the door we'll be stuck with it forever, and not
    even Paul wants it anymore.

    [24-Aug-2000 tim+guido - done]
    Win98 Guido:  popen is hanging on Guido, and even freezing the
    whole machine.  Was caused by Norton Antivirus 2000 (6.10.20) on
    Windows 9x.  Resolution: disable virus protection.


Accepted and completed

    * Change meaning of \x escapes - PEP 223 - Fredrik Lundh

    * Add \U1234678 escapes in u"" strings - Fredrik Lundh

    * Support for opcode arguments > 2**16 - Charles Waldman
      SF Patch 100893

    * "import as" - Thomas Wouters
      Extend the 'import' and 'from ... import' mechanism to enable
      importing a symbol as another name. (Without adding a new keyword.)

    * List comprehensions - Skip Montanaro
      Tim Peters still needs to do PEP.

    * Restore old os.path.commonprefix behavior
      Do we have test cases that work on all platforms?

    * Tim O'Malley's cookie module with good license

    * Lockstep iteration ("zip" function) - Barry Warsaw

    * SRE - Fredrik Lundh
      [at least I *think* it's done, as of 15-Aug-2000 - tim]

    * Fix xrange printing behavior - Fred Drake
      Remove the tp_print handler for the xrange type; it produced a
      list display instead of 'xrange(...)'.  The new code produces a
      minimal call to xrange(), enclosed in (... * N) when N != 1.
      This makes the repr() more human readable while making it do
      what reprs are advertised as doing.  It also makes the xrange
      objects obvious when working in the interactive interpreter.

    * Extended print statement - Barry Warsaw
      PEP 214
      http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0214.html
      SF Patch #100970
      http://sourceforge.net/patch/?func=detailpatch&patch_id=100970&group_id=5470

    * interface to poll system call - Andrew Kuchling
      SF Patch 100852

    * Augmented assignment - Thomas Wouters
      Add += and family, plus Python and C hooks, and API functions.

    * gettext.py module - Barry Warsaw


Postponed

    * Extended slicing on lists - Michael Hudson
      Make lists (and other builtin types) handle extended slices.

    * Compression of Unicode database - Fredrik Lundh
      SF Patch 100899
      At least for 2.0b1.  May be included in 2.0 as a bug fix.

    * Range literals - Thomas Wouters
      SF Patch 100902
      We ended up having a lot of doubt about the proposal.

    * Eliminated SET_LINENO opcode - Vladimir Marangozov
      Small optimization achieved by using the code object's lnotab
      instead of the SET_LINENO instruction.  Uses code rewriting
      technique (that Guido's frowns on) to support debugger, which
      uses SET_LINENO.

      http://starship.python.net/~vlad/lineno/
      for (working at the time) patches

      Discussions on python-dev:

      - http://www.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-April/subject.html
        Subject: "Why do we need Traceback Objects?"

      - http://www.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/1999-August/002252.html

    * test harness for C code - Trent Mick


Rejected

    * 'indexing-for' - Thomas Wouters
      Special syntax to give Python code access to the loop-counter in 'for'
      loops. (Without adding a new keyword.)



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