[python-committers] Transfer of power

[Tim Peters]

[Antoine]

> I know what python-ideas can be like routinely (I do read it at times).
>
> I think the general idea of my comment is that the signal-to-noise ratio
> on python-ideas is so low that, whether or not Guido had remained BDFL,
> we would still have a productivity problem to solve there.
>

I'm much more focused here on the underappreciated roles Guido played in
the process than the medium in which the process occurred.  Regardless of
whether it occurs on a high or low S/N mailing list, a wiki, a Github
issue, ... a PEP proceeds from freewheeling brainstorming to
python-dev-worthy perfection ;-) incrementally, and along the way "yes,
this idea is definitely in - stop arguing about it' and "no, that idea is
dead - stop repeating it" pronouncements need to be made.

When that doesn't happen by universal consensus, it needs to be forced by
_some_ mechanism.

If the people involved vote on what they do and don't like, then we have
design by committee.

I'd much rather have a BDFL-workalike.  But in that case, they need to be
involved and responsive, not just sit back waiting for "a crisis" to rise
to their rarefied level.  The latter is indeed important for a
BDFL-workalike too, but the point here has been that Guido did much more
than _just_ put out raging fires, via the multitude of largely unheralded
little pronouncements he routinely made to help PEPs-in-progress continue
making progress.  And to kill PEPs before they were written when he knew
he'd never accept the core idea.
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