[python-committers] Transfer of power

[Tim Peters]

[Tim]

> If they tied, that's fine too.  Ties favor the status quo (same as if the
>> proposed change had been rejected).  For that reason, I'm not even wedded
>> to an odd number.
>>
>
[Brett Cannon]

> That's a good point. Since this is typically going to be a yes/no question
> instead of an A/B question, ties that go in favour of the status quo aren't
> a stalemate issue.
>

Thanks for reading my mind :-)  I certainly didn't spell it out.

Predictably contentious A/B issues, like how to allocate limited resources
(how much do we spend on grants vs sponsoring conferences?), are mostly in
the PSF's court.  Likewise A/B decisions with legal consequences (now that
the DPRK has ruled the PSF license counterrevolutionary, which license
should we use there instead?).

Guido's most visible (well, to us committers) BDFL role has been in
"yes/no", "go/nogo" language/library design questions, which don't even
overlap with the PSF's proper concerns.

But I'm not sure it's fully appreciated just how active Guido has been in
those at times.  The "accepted/rejected" at the end of major PEPs is just a
small part of that.  Along the way, e.g., it's been pretty common to see a
"Save your breath.  That's not going to happen." from Guido to end a
distracting alternative (sub)proposal persistently promoted by one (or a
few) very active and/or loquacious posters.

Those "small" pronouncements typically go by with little notice except by
those shut down, but may well be crucial in keeping productive discussion
going at all.  And they need to be timely to do any good.  Whoever makes
such decisions needs to be down in the mud, wrestling with the issues while
they're hot topics, not judging at leisure weeks (or even days) later.

I'm not sure "a committee" can do that at all.  Then again, there seems to
be consensus that the current PEP discussion process is sometimes broken
anyway, even with a BDFL.
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