[IPython-dev] Feature and scope creep in IPython

[Nicholas Bollweg]

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 1:58 PM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg at gmail.com> wrote:

> One point: while some of our scope and feature creep problems can be
> solved by good workflows and tools, others can't.  I don't think we
> need tools to better manage more and more new features, we need tools
> to help us better manage fewer new features *well*.  And maybe that is
> another way of putting it: I am arguing for quality, not quantity of
> features.
>
This is a very good point, but since i'm on a kick: what is the means for
determining quality? For the kernel? For the notebook? For the various
frontends? Does every committer weigh in on every decision? What is the
role of non-committers? "Plebiscite" style decision making would probably
be crippling. If a project can start determining what these heuristics are,
maybe the data from its various feeds can help.

I liked some of the discussion on your blog post (I think) by the SymPy
guys: their users "only use 20%" of SymPy... but every user has a different
20%! What is the broader community's usage of IPython like? Has this been
captured before?
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