[Python-Dev] whither PEP 407 and 413 (release cycle PEPs)?

[Hynek Schlawack]

Am 03.06.12 13:22, schrieb "Martin v. Löwis":

> - Some contributors are worried about getting their contributions "out",
>   and some core committers are worried that we get fewer contributions
>   because of that.
> 
>   While I well recall the feeling of getting changes "out", the real
>   concerns only exist for the very first contribution:
>   * Those gurus on python-dev are certainly working on a fix for this
>     very important issue already, how could they not have noticed?
>     My work will be futile, and they'll fix it the day before I submit
>     the patch.
>   * Now that the patch is uploaded, can somebody *please* review it?
>     How hard can it be to look over 20 lines of code?
>   * Now that they committed it, when can I start telling my friends
>     about it? The next release takes ages, and waiting is not fun.
> 
>   While these concerns are all real, it's really a matter of contributor
>   education to deal with them, The longer people contribute to open
>   source (or participate in any kind of software development), the
>   more they learn that this is just how things work. The PEP really
>   only addresses the third concern, whereas I think that the second
>   is much more relevant.

As a newish core developer I’d like to stress that Martin is 100% right
here.

Point three was never an issue to me – the biggest satisfaction is
seeing the actual commit with the own name and the appearing in ACKS –
you _can_ already tell your friends/tweet/blog about it at this point.
And people do.

OTOH point two is _very_ frustrating. The most colorful bikeshed is
still much better than ignored patches. Personally, I gave up on CPython
after my patches languished for weeks until Antoine revived the tickets
three months later.

I'm sure we've lost plenty of talent this way already and _if_ we want
to attract more talented contributors, _this_ is the issue to tackle.
The release process has nothing to do with that.

I guess the PEPs (especially 413) are more about the bad rap the stdlib
has been getting lately (e.g.
<http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2012/04/where-modules-go-to-die/>).

>   As for us not getting enough contributions: can we please worry
>   about that when we have all patches processed that already have
>   been contributed?

Realistically, that means "never".

Cheers,
Hynek