Not enough Python library development [was PEP scepticism]

[Harry George]

Justin Sheehy <justin at iago.org> writes:

> Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> writes:
> 
> >> It could be also interesting to have time module as powerful as mxDateTime
> >> in standard library. And so on.
> > 
> > Well, propose one.  But what exactly is the point of adding it to the
> > standard library when you can get mxDateTime if you need it?
> 
> There's a huge amount of value in having a module that is known to be
> the de facto standard for a given use added to the standard library.

And there are costs.  I also have to write apps used on multiple
platforms, and I'd like 4Suite, Numeric, ScientificPython, xoltar,
pyrecode, pyqt/kde/gtk/gnome, and a few others always available.  But
instead of making them part of the std (and thus making releases more
difficult, I'd prefer to have a tool which obtains and installs them
based on a preference list I supply.  apt-get or something like that
(it has to be source tarball based).

> 
> First off, people new to Python will know that they have it when they
> look at the standard library documentation.  Python's rich standard
> library is one of its big strengths.
> 
> Also, once something is part of the standard distribution, it is much
> more likely to stick around and continue to have people pay attention
> to it.  This is a major positive point for long-term stability.
> 
> For another point, I'll give a personal datapoint.  Part of my job
> occasionally involves writing software that will run on a network of
> several thousand computers, not all of which have the same
> architecture or operating system.  Any code that I write or use that
> is pure-python other than modules in the standard library is
> relatively easy to roll out.  If I have to compile and deploy
> separate module files for each architecture/OS in order to use a
> fairly basic library, the degree of added work is really quite
> enormous.
> 
> If a module is already considered to be "standard" by the Python
> community, and is unencumbered license-wise, adding it to the standard
> library helps everyone.
> 
> -Justin
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Harry George
hgg9140 at seanet.com