Python 3 is killing Python

[Kevin Walzer]

RIck,

On 7/17/14, 2:15 PM, Rick Johnson wrote:
> Sadly, all of my calls to improve IDLE have been meet with
> rebukes about me "whining". The "powers that be" would wise
> to*UTILIZE*  and*ENCOURAGE*  my participation instead of
> *IGNORING*  valuable talent and*IMPEDING*  the expansion of
> this "private boys club".

A bit late to this, I suppose...

Where are your patches? Can you point me to anywhere at the Python bug 
tracker where they can be found?

I'll highlight the two major patches I've submitted over the past few 
years:

http://bugs.python.org/issue15853
http://bugs.python.org/issue6075

One fixed a pretty bad crash on the Mac, and the other optimized IDLE's 
Mac port to adjust to some API changes in Tk because of a switch in the 
native back end (Carbon to Cocoa).

In both cases I posted an e-mail or two to the relevant mailing list 
(IDLE-dev and MacPython) to provide a head-up about the patch, answer 
questions, and so on--but that was it. No major "calls to improve IDLE," 
just some code that DID improve IDLE. The "powers that be" didn't commit 
the patches right away, and not without some modification and testing, 
but they eventually did commit them, and the outcome satisfied my 
intention in submitting the patches in the first place.

Both of these patches addressed issues that made IDLE pretty much 
un-usable for me. Obviously a crash will do this, but also, when I 
switched my installation of Tk from the Carbon-backed one to the 
Cocoa-backed one, there were lots of little glitches because of subtle 
differences in how Cocoa did things.

I suppose I simply could have filled the mailing lists with complaints 
that these things were Big Problems for me and Someone Should Do 
Something About Them, but there was no guarantee that someone would pick 
up the challenge. Fortunately, I had the knowledge, skills and time to 
submit patches that were sufficiently developed that the relevant Python 
maintainers could take them, apply them, modify slightly as required, 
test them, and then commit them. This did ensure that Something Would Be 
Done about my issue, because the Person Who Did Something About It was me.

I know you are proficient in both Python and Tkinter, as I've noted from 
the helpful advice you give Tkinter newbies on the list from time to 
time, and so I'm sure you have the skill set to put together some 
patches that address specific points of pain for you. And despite the 
disagreement that others may register with you in these threads from 
time to time, I'm quite confident that useful patches will be gratefully 
accepted, even if not immediately.

--Kevin

-- 
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin/Mobile Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com
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