[IPython-dev] Proposal: soft moratorium on re-architecting for 5.0

[Fernando Perez]

On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 2:55 AM, Matthias Bussonnier <
bussonniermatthias at gmail.com> wrote:

> I do hear what Thomas is saying too, but I have seen to numerous time
> people reimplementing
> in javascript pieces of our codes because they are un-reusable (hydrogen,
> notable mind, the
> things that render notebook purely in js ... ) so it seem that **some**
> refactoring is needed.
>

Yes, I really think we have no option but work on this...

There's one word that keeps me up at night right now when I think of this:
MySpace...

Basically, we've established a lot of early momentum in the space of the
notebook, our interactive kernel architecture, etc. But in doing so, we've
actually shown the value of the problem space to be so important, that lots
and lots of other players are now moving in, and many of them need to build
new ideas rapidly.

Fortunately for us, some of them are actually willing to work with us to
refactor our machinery to enable a far better set of tools to be built in
the near future atop of our same overall design.   But unless we actually
do that, most folks would eventually just decide to simply do something
else and build elsewhere...

So, let's try to not end up like MySpace.  The refactoring work is really
critical, and it's work we *can* do in a relatively limited timeframe. It
won't be trivial, but it won't take a year either.  With some careful
planning and dedicated effort, we can pull through in a few months and have
a cleaner foundation to build upon.

Cheers

f


-- 
Fernando Perez (@fperez_org; http://fperez.org)
fperez.net-at-gmail: mailing lists only (I ignore this when swamped!)
fernando.perez-at-berkeley: contact me here for any direct mail
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