Ticket #13652 (closed PLIP: fixed)
Drop Python 2.6 support for Plone 5
Reported by: | timo | Owned by: | |
---|---|---|---|
Priority: | minor | Milestone: | 5.0 |
Component: | Unknown | Version: | |
Keywords: | Cc: |
Description (last modified by davisagli) (diff)
Proposer: Timo Stollenwerk
Seconder: David Glick
Motivation
Supporting two Python versions for Plone 4.x has been necessary for a smooth transition to Python 2.7 and because most OS distributions used Python 2.6 as default Python interpreter.
Testing and supporting two Python versions requires quite some effort for core developers and package maintainers. This also makes our Jenkins setup more complex and requires more machines to run our tests.
Plone 5 gives us the opportunity for a clean cut off and it gives people enough time to prepare for an Python 2.7 upgrade.
Plone 5 is quite an ambitious project and we should focus on the important enhancements and not waste time on supporting old Python versions that aren't widely used any longer.
Assumptions
Python 2.6 is not the default Python interpreter on most OSes or support has been already dropped.
- Debain Wheezy (7.0) uses Python 2.7 as default ( http://wiki.debian.org/NewInWheezy)
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS dropped Python 2.6 entirely ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Python)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux seems to still support Python 2.5 and 2.6 ( https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Developer_Guide/libraries.python.html). Though in one year when Plone 5 will be released I'd guess that the next release supports Python 2.7.
We will create Plone 4.3/5.0 branches for most if not all packages anyways, so we have a clear separation what versions support Python 2.6 and which doesn't.
Proposal & Implementation
Announce that Plone 5 will not officially support Python 2.6. Do not set up Jenkins jobs for Plone 5 - Python 2.6.
Deliverables
None
Risks
Site administrators running old OS versions and migrating from older Plone versions could complain or get upset.
Participants
Timo Stollenwerk
Change History
comment:1 Changed 3 years ago by timo
- Version 4.4 deleted
- Type changed from Bug to PLIP
- Milestone changed from 4.x to 5.0
comment:4 Changed 3 years ago by davisagli
- Description modified (diff)
I second this proposal.
Another reason is that support by the core Python team for security fixes for Python 2.6 ends in October 2013.
Supporting only Python 2.7 will let us clean up some things by taking advantage of things that were added to the language. For example we can use new unittest assertions and the nice data structures in the collections module.