[Bf-committers] Proposal for clarified VFX Reference Platform Support

[Ray Molenkamp]

All right, looks like we're tiptoeing around
the elephant in the room, time to rip that
Band-Aid off (feels like this metaphor kinda
got away from me, but I'm sticking with it!)

Let’s not beat around the bush, no-one has
ever complained about our OIIO, Boost, VDB or
TBB versions. People get ..passionate..
about python, anytime someone brings up the
VFX Platform it's python, It's never anything
else, it's python, the rest of the VFX platform
may as well not exist. The issue is, and will
always be python.

The real question is, are we going to follow
the platform in regards to python or not.

The way the python [1] and VFX Platforms [2]
are released those most we'll ever have is a
5-month window where the two will overlap and
there will actually be active bug fix support
on python the python version of the VFX Platform.
Are we OK with that?

People get upse..uhh passionate when we "suddenly"
change our python version. What is needed is a
clear and decisive message regarding how we pick
our python versions.

Are we following:

A) The python release schedule
B) The VFX platform schedule
C) Well, you know maybe, VFX kind of works out
this year so why not, next year maybe not so
much, we'll see, oh hey this years python has ….
[check notes]..better….. error.. messages? we got
to upgrade!
D) Other

We have been doing C, and I don't think anyone
is super thrilled about how this is working out.

I mostly don’t even care what we pick (not C!!)
pick something, write it down somewhere, so people
can rely on it.

--Ray

[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0602/
[2] https://vfxplatform.com/about/