[DB-SIG] Current status of Gadfly

[Keating, Tim]

To further muddy the waters: I am a pretty regular Python user, and
obviously I participate in one SIG, but I had no idea what the catalog SIG
was about, nor would I be inclined to go looking for it. As a result, I
never knew such a thing existed. I think what we really need is a python
news center (dare I say, something like Slashdot?) where Python USERS can
find out about stuff like this. To paraphrase a marketing person I know, if
you build it they will NOT come unless you TELL them about it.

Sorry to extend the life of this highly off-topic thread, but I also agree
that a CPAN-like repository would be very cool and useful.

TK

> You can read that fact two ways. On the one hand, no-one 
> really cares enough
> to put in a lot of effort polishing and perfecting the 
> proposals that get
> made. This is a bad thing, sure. But on the other hand, it 
> also means that
> people are pragmatic - they don't care about *perfecting* the 
> proposal, they
> just want something practical, that works. I suspect that if Suchandra
> simply implemented his proposal, and publicised it, and 
> worked at grabbing
> as many modules as he could and putting them into his 
> catalog, then it would
> work, and take off. But that requires one person's commitment 
> and time (and
> web space).
> 
> The thing that sometimes saddens me about the Python 
> community is how so
> many good ideas stagnate because there is too much design and 
> not enough
> implementation. Of course, I don't implement anything, so my 
> comments can't
> be seen as anything other than heckling from the peanut gallery :-)
> 
> BTW, if you wish, you may interpret this message as 
> enthusiastic support for
> Suchandra's prototype. It is. I haven't used it - I don't 
> read the catalog
> SIG - but I am strongly in favour of anything in this area. 
> Perl's CPAN
> isn't perfect - heck, in many ways it's dreadful - but people 
> still point to
> it as a shining example of how to do things. Parnassus isn't 
> ideal, but
> still loads of people use it. And as a basis for measuring 
> alternatives,
> it's often quoted (earlier in this thread, we had the comment 
> "Vault of
> Parnassus is a Good Thing, but we need something with...") 
> Lack of comments
> doesn't always mean lack of interest - number of users is the 
> only real
> measure, and proposals don't have users...