plistlib old API should be removed

[Bigfootjon]

BPO	36409
Nosy	@ronaldoussoren, @ned-deily, @serhiy-storchaka, @bigfootjon
PRs	bpo-36409: Remove old plistlib API deprecated in 3.4 #12515 bpo-36409: Remove old plistlib API deprecated in 3.4 #15615

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2019-09-05.13:37:57.279>
created_at = <Date 2019-03-23.16:11:49.750>
labels = ['OS-mac', 'library', '3.9']
title = 'plistlib old API should be removed'
updated_at = <Date 2019-09-05.13:37:57.279>
user = 'https://github.com/Bigfootjon'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2019-09-05.13:37:57.279>
actor = 'bigfootjon'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2019-09-05.13:37:57.279>
closer = 'bigfootjon'
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'macOS']
creation = <Date 2019-03-23.16:11:49.750>
creator = 'bigfootjon'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 36409
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['338683', '338793', '338882', '338890', '351191']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['ronaldoussoren', 'ned.deily', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'bigfootjon']
pr_nums = ['12515', '15615']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue36409'
versions = ['Python 3.9']

[Bigfootjon]

Per the documentation and in-line code warnings, the old API for plistlib was deprecated in version 3.4. My understanding is that deprecated functionality is to be removed in the next major version, so this code is long overdue for removal.

[serhiy-storchaka]

It was preserved for compatibility with Python 2.7. From PEP-4:

"In order to facilitate writing code that works in both Python 2 & 3 simultaneously, any module that exists in both Python 3.5 and Python 2.7 will not be removed from the standard library until Python 2.7 is no longer supported as specified by PEP-373."

3.9 will be the first Python 3 release after the EOL of 2.7.

[Bigfootjon]

Ah, I misinterpreted PEP-4. I thought it only applied to modules as a whole (e.g. plistlib) rather than individual functionality within that module. I'll close my PR and wait until 3.9 is accepting patches

[serhiy-storchaka]

Yes, this is mainly about modules, but in general we try to be more careful with removing features that do not have alternatives in 2.7. In this particular case, the benefit from removing the deprecated functions in 3.8 instead of 3.9 is small, but this will make harder writing 2+3 compatible code.

In any case this is on to the module maintainer, Ronald.

[ronaldoussoren]

New changeset ce81a92 by Ronald Oussoren (Jon Janzen) in branch 'master':
bpo-36409: Remove old plistlib API deprecated in 3.4 (GH-15615)
ce81a92