[Image-SIG] PIL development / community+releases

[Alex Clark]

Hi,


On 8/9/12 6:08 AM, Felix Schwarz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm a bit confused about the current state of PIL.
>
> As mentioned before the latest released version of PIL is 1.1.7, the latest
> version on pypi is 1.1.6. I'm also aware of the pil-2009-raclette hg repository.
>
> The hg repository has some interesting fixes but also several bitbucket forks,
> some open pull requests and open issues.
>
> What concerns me is that the last release was in 2009, issues don't seem to
> get attention and even the pull requests are not being merged (some are open
> for almost a year). In the hg repo I see some commits but the last one was
> more than a year ago.
>
> At the same time there is also pillow now
> (http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pillow/) which comes with its own set of patches
> and even more forks on github.
>
> It looks to me as if PIL development is "on hold" right now even though there
> are clearly people interested in the library and a lot of work to do.
>
>
> Is the raclette repo still the "authoritative" source for PIL development?
> Any plans for a release? If not, what is missing right now?
> Can you not just join forces with the "friendly fork" (Pillow) and get fresh
> blood in the project?


Pillow is effectively tracking PIL. It exists because the release 
timetable for PIL was not satisfactory to some folks in the community, 
and the 1.1.7 release was/is not setuptools compatible. You can read the 
archives of this list to learn more about PIllow's birth and development 
and ongoing maintenance, starting here:


- http://mail.python.org/pipermail/image-sig/2010-July/006423.html


IIUC, pil-2009-raclette contains quite a bit of new development. So if 
folks don't want to wait for a release, they can open tickets and send 
patches to Pillow to get them out the door. This especially includes the 
need to address Python 3 compat. Here is the current Pillow home:


- https://github.com/python-imaging


The best case scenario would be for PIL to return to "active" 
development, along with a more aggressive release schedule. Until that 
happens, we have Pillow. (I don't have any information about PIL's 
current plans, Fredrik may be able to provide some insight.)



Alex





>
> fs
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-- 
Alex Clark · http://pythonpackages.com/ONE_CLICK