Understanding python2.3 migration problems

[Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org>]

I'm trying to understand Colin Watson's discussion
http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2003/debian-release-200309/msg00057.html
of problems blocking python2.3 from testing (I found it thanks to
DWN).

I'm puzzled because most of the packages listed seem to depend on
python2.3, rather than having python2.3 depend on them.  Why would
they block the migration?

The report from
http://bjorn.haxx.se/debian/testing.pl?package=python2.3 looks much
different, and I guess I was expecting Colin's note to be similar.

One possibility that occurs to me is that the new python2.3 would
knock out the packages listed in the "python transition problems"
email.  Is that it, or is something else going on?

I'm interested in this because of the very long-standing problems with
python-related stuff moving into testing, and I want to understand
what's going on.

I'm sending to this list because I subscribe and it seems on topic.  I
hope that, and cc'ing Colin is OK.

Thanks.