[Bf-committers] VFX reference platform 2022 draft

[Campbell Barton]

I'm not too keen on tying ourselves to the VFX platform again (for
Python versions at least).

The VFX platform has a track record of not upgrading Python for
reasons that don't make sense for Blender (availability of Python-QT
bindings & some companies simply not wanting to upgrade).

Now Blender has a track record of not following the VFX platform when
it doesn't suit us, undermining our commitment to such a decision.
This can't be reassuring to the kinds of stakeholders who might find
some benefit in Blender using the VFX platform.

Blender used the VFX platform for long enough I think we would know if
it was giving us much/anything in the way of tangible benefits.


On Wed, May 19, 2021 at 12:14 AM Bastien Montagne via Bf-committers
<bf-committers at blender.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> The only info regarding versions availability we have is that sentence:
>
> > A change in policy to only allow released versions to be included in
> > each year's VFX Reference Platform
>
> This is fairly vague and unclear, since it does not specify any limit
> date...
>
> I asked about why they still stick to a fairly old python version on the
> discussion thread Brecht linked (message is pending approval currently),
> we'll see if we get an answer.
>
> I would indeed much rather use a version of python that is actively
> maintained during the whole year the VFX recommendations apply. And
> python has a history track now of being reliable on their release dates,
> so I do think VFX could be a bit less conservative on this tool (and go
> back to an older version in October/November in the very unlikely case
> that python would be unable to release 3.10 on time).
>
> That being said, sticking to 3.9 for 2022 is not as bad as what they did
> for 2021, so I would not be too annoyed if that was the case either.
>
> Cheers,
> Bastien
>
>
> On 5/18/21 2:50 PM, Ray Molenkamp via Bf-committers wrote:
> > imho 3.9 is the only version they could have picked, the
> > proposed release date for 3.10 is 2021-10-04 [1]. While
> > the VFX platform aims to finalize in august [2]. I was
> > rather vocal last year for them putting versions on that
> > had not been released yet (some of which got delayed well
> > into 2021) I'm happy to see for 2022 a more conservative
> > stance has been taken.
> >
> > With bugfix support for 3.9 ending on 2022-05-02 [3] that
> > does put them in an odd situation, they'll either have
> > to recommend a version that may not be released on time,
> > or recommend a version that will not see bug fixes for most
> > of the year. There seemingly is no winning solution here
> > since the problem appears to be the somewhat short
> > support window for python releases.
> >
> > As much as I picked on them last year for making very
> > strange recommendations, I feel they struck a good balance
> > for 2022.
> >
> > --Ray
> >
> > [1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0619/
> > [2] https://vfxplatform.com/about/
> > [3] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0596/
> >
> > On 2021-05-18 2:47 a.m., Sybren A. Stüvel via Bf-committers wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> On Mon, 17 May 2021 at 19:54, Brecht Van Lommel via Bf-committers <
> >> bf-committers at blender.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>> There is a draft for the next VFX reference platform up now. Since we had
> >>> some issues with the last one, it would be good to give feedback if
> >>> necessary.
> >>>
> >> Good call.
> >>
> >>
> >>> Python was upgraded to 3.9, which will still trail behind 3.10 that will be
> >>> released this year. So the question about diverging or not will remain.
> >>>
> >> My preference would be to, for non-LTS releases at least, stick to versions
> >> of Python that still receive bugfixes. In the past we've had crashes of
> >> Blender that were due to a bug in Python. The only way to solve that was to
> >> upgrade Python itself. This in itself is rare, but I don't remember having
> >> such issues at all until we stuck to the old py3.7 to adhere to the VFX
> >> Platform.
> >>
> >> Is there anything known about the policy of the VFX Platform when it comes
> >> to picking which Python version to stick to? Is it always going to be
> >> "whatever version was released a year earlier"? Or is there still an
> >> acceleration happening after sticking to py2.7 so long, and will they
> >> eventually be targeting the latest versions? If it's the latter I'd be fine
> >> with following the VFX Platform and sticking to py3.9 for a while longer.
> >> If sticking to the platform means that for a significant amount of time
> >> we'll be on versions of Python that don't receive bugfixes any more, I'm
> >> less positive.
> >>
> >> Sybren
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--
- Campbell