Real.py

[Tim Peters]

[Mats Wichmann, on the old python.org contrib directory]
> ...
> Seems like we need a new repository for useful little bits of code,
> bigger than "recipes" at ActiveState, but smaller than full SourceForge
> projects.  Parnassus isn't a repository, it just provides the links (the
> thing I was looking for I had tried to get "from" the Vaults).
> Apparently the problem on ftp.python.org was that stuff got put there,
> and then there was no maintenance on the directory so there was a whole
> bunch of obsolete stuff.

Yes, and there were about 400 files, and whenever anyone "had a problem"
with one of them, their email wound up in Guido's or Barry's inbox.  The
time drain on them was considerable, and *most* contributors ended up
getting an account on the Starship and putting their current work there
anyway.  The contrib directory was thus, for the most part, akin to an
elephant burial ground.

Plus Guido maintains that anyone who wants to build a web page of their own
can now, which wasn't true when the contrib directory was created.  I agree
with him in theory, although I've sometimes noted to myself that, for
example, *I* haven't gotten around to putting up a web page yet <wink>.

The thing that overlooks is that some contributors have simply vanished, and
I know at least one who died, and if web sites are still too much a pain for
some of the living to set up, corpses are right out.

[Hernan M. Foffani]
> I'll be honored to host those packages. I have 10 MB free on my site
> which is hosted in the USA.  Email me if you think that my offer would
> help.

I expect it's the "editorial" process that's the real pain here:  digging
thru 400 files and figuring out which are worth preserving.  I have a copy
of the archive on my home box, and it's 25 MB.  The size isn't as bad as it
sounds, since e.g. 7 MB of that is old versions of Interscript and 2.5 MB is
old versions of SWIG, but there are still 100s of files to plow thru.