[Python-Dev] Python 1.6 status

[Guido van Rossum]

Greg Stein recently reminded me that he was holding off on 1.6 patches
because he was under the impression that I wasn't accepting them yet.

The situation is rather more complicated than that.  There are a great
deal of things that need to be done, and for many of them I'd be most
happy to receive patches!  For other things, however, I'm still in the
requirements analysis phase, and patches might be premature (e.g., I
want to redesign the import mechanisms, and while I like some of the
prototypes that have been posted, I'm not ready to commit to any
specific implementation).

How do you know for which things I'm ready for patches?  Ask me.  I've
tried to make lists before, and there are probably some hints in the
TODO FAQ wizard as well as in the "requests" section of the Python
Bugs List.

Greg also suggested that I might receive more patches if I opened up
the CVS tree for checkins by certain valued contributors.  On the one
hand I'm reluctant to do that (I feel I have a pretty good track
record of checking in patches that are mailed to me, assuming I agree
with them) but on the other hand there might be something to say for
this, because it gives contributors more of a sense of belonging to
the inner core.  Of course, checkin privileges don't mean you can
check in anything you like -- as in the Apache world, changes must be
discussed and approved by the group, and I would like to have a veto.
However once a change is approved, it's much easier if the contributor
can check the code in without having to go through me all the time.

A drawback may be that some people will make very forceful requests to
be given checkin privileges, only to never use them; just like there
are some members of python-dev who have never contributed.  I
definitely want to limit the number of privileged contributors to a
very small number (e.g. 10-15).

One additional detail is the legal side -- contributors will have to
sign some kind of legal document similar to the current (wetsign.html)
release form, but guiding all future contributions.  I'll have to
discuss this with CNRI's legal team.

Greg, I understand you have checkin privileges for Apache.  What is
the procedure there for handing out those privileges?  What is the
procedure for using them?  (E.g. if you made a bogus change to part of
Apache you're not supposed to work on, what happens?)

I'm hoping for several kind of responses to this email:

- uncontroversial patches

- questions about whether specific issues are sufficiently settled to
start coding a patch

- discussion threads opening up some issues that haven't been settled
yet (like the current, very productive, thread in i18n)

- posts summarizing issues that were settled long ago in the past,
requesting reverification that the issue is still settled

- suggestions for new issues that maybe ought to be settled in 1.6

- requests for checkin privileges, preferably with a specific issue or
area of expertise for which the requestor will take responsibility

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)