[Python-Dev] Policy on refactoring/clean up

[Ivan Pozdeev]

On 26.06.2018 14:43, Jeroen Demeyer wrote:
> On 2018-06-26 13:11, Ivan Pozdeev via Python-Dev wrote:
>> AFAICS, your PR is not a strict improvement
>
> What does "strict improvement" even mean? Many changes are not strict 
> improvements, but still useful to have.
>
> Inada pointed me to YAGNI 
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren%27t_gonna_need_it) but I 
> disagree with that premise: there is a large gray zone between 
> "completely useless" and "really needed". My PR falls in that gap of 
> "nice to have but we can do without it".
>
>> You may suggest it as a supplemental PR to PEP 580. Or even a part of
>> it, but since the changes are controversial, better make the
>> refactorings into separate commits so they can be rolled back separately
>> if needed.
>
> If those refactorings are rejected now, won't they be rejected as part 
> of PEP 580 also?

This is exactly what that the YAGNI principle is about, and Inada was 
right to point to it. Until you have an immediate practical need for 
something, you don't really know the shape and form for it that you will 
be the most comfortable with. Thus any "would be nice to have" 
tinkerings are essentially a waste of time and possibly a degradation, 
too: you'll very likely have to change them again when the real need 
arises -- while having to live with any drawbacks in the meantime.

So, if you suggest those changes together with the PEP 580 PR, they will 
be reviewed through the prism of the new codebase and its needs, which 
are different from the current codebase and its needs.

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-- 
Regards,
Ivan