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Upgrade or not ??

Tim Peters tim_one at email.msn.com
Sat Jul 3 14:37:56 EDT 1999 
[Pierrette Serrand]
> First a general question :
> Actually we're working with Python 1.5.1 and we're satisfied with it.
> Should we upgrade to 1.5.2

Of course.

> and if yes WHY?

Carrots and sticks.  And why wouldn't you?  It's free!

More than a year passed between 1.5.1 and 1.5.2, spanning hundreds of little
improvements and bugfixes, along with a few major ones.  So, e.g., if you
find a bug in 1.5.1, the response will be (http://www.python.org/1.5/):

    Forget about reporting a bug until you've confirmed that the bug
    still occurs in the 1.5.2 release

IOW, 1.5.1 is no longer supported.  And while the dozen <wink> lines of code
you've already written for 1.5.1 are very likely to work fine under 1.5.2,
as time goes on more & more new useful modules and code snippets are likely
to require new-in-1.5.2 features.

> No a Tkinter guestion :

Not a Tk guy, so I'll skip to the end:

> ...
> - Not write in python ? In this case we lose the work done for the
> prototype

If you can get a prototype done in Python 10x faster than in anything else,
and get the first crucial rounds of redesign done at that speed too, you win
big overall even if you do end up recoding the refined design in some other
language.

IOW, be realistic here:  you lose the work done for a prototype no matter
what language you write it in.  That's why they call it a prototype instead
of a product <wink>.

would-you-rather-throw-away-500-lines-or-5000?-ly y'rs  - tim
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