On Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 6:59 AM Julian Foad <julianf...@apache.org> wrote: > A thought about supporting older Python versions... Somewhere in the > pipeline between community inputs and project outputs, should we > distinguish between "we will not support ..." and "we will be glad to > accept contributions that enable supporting ..."? How would this look? > > I am just getting the feeling that we, a small group of developers, are > trying to make a decision by ourselves when perhaps we should be more > actively reaching out to the wider community to invite them to influence > the result. I know we have to decide to write something, but maybe we > can write something that encourages the users (yes, the tiny proportion > that might do something about it) to feel they can have a stake in it if > they want to.
+1 to that. I agree that we should reach out and let the community know that new new contributors (and old ones) are welcomed with open arms. To answer "How would this look?" I propose that there should be a new section added at the end of the release notes titled something along the lines of "Enthusiastic Contributors Welcome!" It doesn't have to be those words; it's just what I came up with so far. That section would try to inspire and encourage new involvement. In addition, in each of the Python sub-sections, I propose to add some text to the effect that we welcome contributions to support additional Python versions, and refer the reader to the new section. It would look something like the following... I'm double-underlining section headings and single-underlining subsection headings. If the following looks like a reasonable start, I'd like to go ahead and commit it (and continue editing/fixing/improving)... [[[ What's New in Apache Subversion 1.14 ==================================== (other text here) Support for Python 3.x ---------------------- Some optional features of Subversion utilize the Python scripting language. Subversion's SWIG Python bindings and automated test suite now support Python 3.x (and newer). ### TODO: Describe which minor releases of Python 3.x we plan to support through the four-year LTS period of Subversion 1.14. Per recent discussions on the dev@ mailing list, that might be some form of "rolling" support: In each 1.14.x patch release, we would make an effort to support the oldest through newest minor lines of Python 3.x that Python upstream supports at the time of our release. However, we could drop support for the oldest one if we have a compelling reason to do so. ### Of course, we welcome contributions that extend Subversion's Python support to include other versions. See the section "Enthusiastic Contributors Welcome" below. Support for Python 2.7 is being phased out ------------------------------------------ As of 1 January 2020, Python 2.7 has reached end of life. This means that Python 2.7 will no longer receive maintenance releases or patches, even for security issues. All users are strongly encouraged to move to Python 3. As Subversion 1.14 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release with planned support into 2024, well beyond end-of-life for Python 2.7, the core Subversion developers cannot commit to supporting and testing with Python 2.7, or to fixing bugs that affect Python 2.7 only, for the duration of this support period. This means that although Subversion 1.14.0 still technically works with Python 2.7, any later 1.14.x point release may drop this support if it becomes too difficult to maintain. If you must continue using Python 2.7, our previous Long Term Support release, Subversion 1.10, is supported until 2022. Python 2.7 support will not be removed from Subversion 1.10. Of course, we welcome contributions that extend Subversion's Python 2.7 support. See "Enthusiastic Contributors Welcome" below. Python is Optional ------------------ Note that Subversion does not require Python for its basic operation. If you are not using Subversion's SWIG Python bindings, automated test suite, or other Python-coded tools that ship with Subversion, this change does not affect you. . . . (snip several sections) . . . Enthusiastic Contributors Welcome! ================================== You can contribute to Subversion! As Subversion is an open source project developed and supported by volunteers, we are always happy to welcome enthusiastic participants to the community. Whether you'd like to see support for additional versions of Python or have ideas for some big new features, if you're willing to invest the effort, Subversion can be anything you imagine. Join the conversation by email: https://subversion.apache.org/mailing-lists.html Or by IRC at irc.freenode.net: #svn channel: User chat and help using Subversion #svn-dev channel: Get involved in development! Get the source: * Check out Subversion's source using Subversion: svn checkout https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/ * or download the latest release tarball: https://subversion.apache.org/download.cgi Join us today! ]]] Thoughts? If the above looks halfway reasonable, I'd like to go ahead and commit that to the work-in-progress release notes. Cheers, Nathan
