[Python-Dev] Issues with process and discussions (Re: Issues with Py3.1's new ipaddr)

[glyph at divmod.com]

On 3 Jun, 07:08 pm, martin at v.loewis.de wrote:
>>To go back to JP's original comments though: what was the right thing
>>for him to do, back in January, when he had these concerns?

>To me, it's fairly clear: what the committer needs to get is guidance 
>in
>any action to take. In most cases, the set of possible actions comes
>down to three:
>a) reject-as-is
>b) commit-as-is
>c) commit-with-changes (specify changes to make)
>[d) take no action at this point, until certain preconditions are met]
>
>For d), it is common to request, to the submitter,
>resubmit-with-changes, then the code needs to be reevaluated when the
>submitter claims to have implemented the requested changes.

Is there a document which lists these things, and explains how it is 
desirable to communicate them?  I recently updated Twisted's equivalent 
document, adding minutae like which buttons to click on in our issue 
tracker, since that seems obvious to me but apparently wasn't obvious to 
a lot of new contributors.
>In the specific case, JP didn't propose an action to take, hence it
>wasn't clear (to me) whom his comment was directed to; I understood
>it as "the module has these minor flaws, they should be fixed at some
>point", which means "commit, then change later". This is what happened.

My reading of it suggests that he was saying "netaddr appears to be 
superior in every way, so python should include that instead.  But, if 
someone is insisting on ipaddr here are the things that could change 
about it".  The important thing here is that interpretation of the 
comment is required, so I can definitely see how you saw it the way you 
did.  There is no "-1" in his comment, and there's no documentation 
(that I'm aware of) which says that a "-1" is required, or how it will 
be used or interpreted.