[reportlab-users] Python baseline for ReportLab in 2003

[Andy Robinson]

> If Python 1.5.2 compatibility is a goal (it's not
> critical for my work), a simple backwards-compatible
> idiom is to replace:
> 
>   from XXX import YYY as ZZZ
> 
> with:
> 
>   from XXX import YYY; ZZZ=YYY; del YYY
> 

IMHO we should fix this and then run a final batch 
of tests on 1.5.2, then officially 'draw a line' and say 
1.18 is the last version to support 1.5.2.

There are too many legacy 'conditional imports' and we
are going to have to handle unicode strings as part of
any rational approach to asian or middle eastern
text support.  2.2.X will be around for some time
and also offers many nice new things. 

Who would howl if we officially 'drew a line' soon
and moved to 2.2 as our baseline?  We would still
do 1.18.1, 1.18.2 etc for critical bugs but would not
invest our own time in adding or backporting new features.
Or, if anyone wants, we could let a volunteer maintain
the compatible track with sourceforge checkin rights.

Thanks,

Andy Robinson