[AstroPy] Co-ordinating Python astronomy libraries?

[Erik Tollerud]

Just one clarification I'd like to make - I would agree that the
smaller targeted packages are probably a good idea in this situation,
but the point I'm making is that coding standards for all of the
packages under the umbrella project should be consistent, and that's
easier to do from the group up.  Things like the use of capital
letters for the beginning of class names, consistent use of the *same*
package to do tasks that are the same (like my model fitting example),
identical style for documentation, etc.  Without these consistencies
it becomes very difficult for the user to understand anything (or the
new developer to expand anything), so they'll just give up and use
something else.

But definitely good to see momentum in this direction!


> I agree and disagree. I think that we need to have a strict API, that
> assures compatibility between the different tools. Even if we improve the
> coordinate objects, then this should still work. On the other hand, I think
> we should strive for wide acceptance, as more users means more developers
> and less time for each individual. And thus a user wanting to use the
> astropy time objects, may want to only install this time object and not a
> big package. Also if someone has a better time object with the same API it
> is easy to replace the old one.
>
> I for one think that for this opensource and multiuser development small
> packages (that speak the same parameter language of course) is better suited
> for the task than monolithic development.


-- 
Erik Tollerud