[Python-Dev] Unicode Maintenance

[Fredrik Lundh]

mal wrote:

> Please let me suggest that for the next coding party you prepare a patch
> which spans all party checkins and upload that patch with a summary
> like the above to SF. That way we can keep the documentation of the overall
> changes in one place and make the process more transparent for everybody.

Sorry, but as long as Guido wants an open development approach
based on collective code ownership (aka "egoless programming"),
that's what he gets.

The current environment provides several tools to track changes
to the code base.  The python-checkins list provides instant info
on every single change to the code base; the investment to track
tha list is a few minutes per day.  The CVS history is also easy to
access; you can reach it via the viewcvs interface, or from the
command line.

Using both CVS and SF's patch manager to track development history
is a waste of time.  A development project manned by volunteers
doesn't need bureaucrats; the version control system provides
all the accountability we'll ever need.

(commercial development projects doesn't need bureaucrats
either, and usually don't have them, but that's another story).

I'd also argue that using many incremental checkins improves
quality -- the smaller a change is, the easier it is to understand,
and the more likely it is that also non-experts will notice simple
mistakes or portability issues.  (I regularily comment on checkin
messages that look suspicious codewise, even if I don't know
anything about the problem area.  I'm even right, sometimes).
Reviewing big patches on SF is really hard, even for experts.

And every hour a patch sits on sourceforge instead of in the code
repository is ten hours less burn-in in a heterogenous testing en-
vironment.  That's worth a lot.

Finally, my experience from this and other projects is that the
"visible heartbeat" you get from a continuous flow of checkin
messages improves team productivity and team morale.  No-
thing is more inspiring than seeing others working for a common
goal.  It's the final product that matters, not who's in charge of
what part of it.  The end user couldn't care less.

I'd prefer if you didn't feel the need to play miniboss on the Python
project (I'm sure you have plenty of 'mx' projects that you can use
that approach, if you have to).  And I'd rather see you at the next
party than out there whining over how you missed the last one.

Cheers /F