[Python-Dev] Why did Fredrik leave the party?

[Tim Peters]

[Michael McLay]
> ...
> I thought the focus of development was going to put more energy
> into improving the standard library.

2.3 has been very much about that, as Guido intended.  For example, I've
done no Python work beyond datetime and pickle development for nearly two
months now.  I doubt Guido wants focus to remain on the library exclusively
and forever more, though.

> For instance, Zope often works with SQL databases and those databases
> often contain financial data. How well does Python support this
> numerical requirement?

IMO, poorly out of the box.  But at the same time nobody in my Zope mgmt
chain has shown any interest in supporting work in this area (and yes, I've
asked -- it doesn't even get to the point of being a wish-list item, there's
simply no interest at all).

> According to IBM Technical Report TR03.413 [1], the numeric column
> breakdown by data type is:
>
>    Type    Columns  percent
>  Decimal    251038   55.0
>  SmallInt   120464   26.4
>  Integer    78842    17.3
>  Float      6180     1.4
>
> The Decimal type is the overwhelming winner because the Decimal type is
> required for financial calculations. This is a huge and important
> IT market segment.  I submitted a patch that added a native fixed type
> to Python using  Tim Peter's FixedPoint module, but it was rejected
> because I added syntax support for the new type.

Consistent with Guido's "new new syntax for 2.3" position.

> Please at least add Tim's FixedPoint module to the 2.3 release. (The
> class should probably be renamed to something shorter like
> fpoint or fixed when it is added to the standard library.)
>
> [1] http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/decifaq1.html#dbstats

Who are you asking?  I've said several times on python-dev and on c.l.py
that (a) Guido has already approved adding FixedPoint to 2.3; and, (b) I
can't make time for it (neither to do it, nor even to offer non-trivial
help).  If I can't make time for it, it's a sure bet nobody else at PLabs
will either.  In someone cares enough to do it and can make time for it,
there's nothing stopping it.