python-dev summary, Jan. 16-31

[Mark Jackson]

Andrew Kuchling <akuchlin at mems-exchange.org> writes:
> "Andrew Dalke" <dalke at acm.org> writes:

[a whole bunch of stuff to which I add a firm "me, too."]

> > about.  To contribute to a thread, I would need to catch up
> > on the mailing list to see what arguments have been presented,
> > then bring up my questions or objections.  But it would be
> > about two weeks late, which means people may have already
> > decided on what to do, and making changes is more likely to
> > be frowned upon.
> 
> Two weeks late is a bit annoying, but it's much less annoying than
> only finding out about objections when the first alpha ships, months
> later!  Note that you *can* send messages to python-dev; only
> subscription is limited.

Hm.  That wasn't clear to me either, and I *do* keep the python-dev
page bookmarked, and check it out from time to time.  Had I ever felt
well-informed enough to want to speak up I wouldn't have known I could
address python-dev directly.

> > So I really place the problem on the main python-dev people
> > who don't bother to disseminate their ideas to the broader
> > audience of people who develop a lot of Python code but
> > aren't language designers.
> 
> Indeed.  I'm increasingly worried that python-dev is becoming too
> insular, working on things while the community is unaware of what's
> coming.

Risk:  the language moves in the direction of being easier for wizards
to write, at the (probable) expense of becoming less easy for
nonwizards to read.

-- 
Mark Jackson - http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson
	Having your book made into a movie is like having
	your ox made into a bouillon cube.
				- Bill Neely