[pypy-dev] Making PyPy relevant

[Dima Tisnek]

Dear PyPy folk,

I had been a quiet supporter of your project for some years, but
lately completely dropped off. I would like to state my reasons in
hope that PyPy will not be completely forgotten and thus point a path
forward, perhaps hypothetical, but one that I would very much like to
see:

#1 PyPy must track Python language versions (and CPython stdlib versions)

You've released 7.3.8 with 3.8 support and I already use [Python
language version] 3.9 in production and 3.10 in CI.
(3.9 in prod only because some dependencies are missing a formal
update, it will be 3.10 in no time)
The components that run [Python language version] 3.8 in prod are a
mix of obsolete, unmaintained, and those whose developers are too busy
with other things, there's no chance those components would switch to
PyPy.

You've released 3.9 beta support and I'm running [CPython] 3.11.0a4. I
can't use your great work.

Ideally PyPy would track these in lock-step (released at the same
time); an acceptable compromise may be a 3-month delay.


In short: for me (and probably mots developers) PyPy remains an
academic exercise.


Thank you,
Dima Tisnek


P.S. My wish list:

#2 Move to GitHub already. Your current repo setup makes it impossible
for the majority to of developers to contribute.

#3 Focus on one major feature, that is visible to the developers, and
not old -- it could be, for example, typing or async/await, but
probably not multithreading. The impact of your amazing work is
proportional to the number of users. The average user is interested
more in language usability and frist-class language features;
performance comes second.