[Python-Dev] Re: PEP Politics

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "A" == aahz  <aahz@pythoncraft.com> writes:

  A> On Tue, Apr 09, 2002, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
  >>
  >> Regarding the subject line: don't know if it's just me, but I
  >> would like to see some of the conservative development style we
  >> had established a few years ago return in Python's development
  >> process. Some of the recent developments left me under the
  >> impression of the need to rush changes with no apparent reason
  >> (for rushing them).

  A> Or, to put it another way, perhaps before development work for
  A> each release starts (aside from bug fixes), we draw up a list of
  A> the feature goals for that release and project a target date for
  A> finishing those goals, but the goals get the focus rather than
  A> the date.  Changing goals after development starts would require
  A> official BDFL prounouncement.

That's pretty much what we do now, isn't it?  

We consider both a set of functional goals and a release schedule.  We
don't want to make these decisions in isolation.  If there are N
features in the release, and all but 1 can be finished in six months,
we don't want to hold them all up for one feature that takes two
years.  So we say the next release will have N-1 features, and the
other feature will go in a future release.

  A> If a great feature comes up after development starts, too bad --
  A> the next development cycle will usually be less than nine months
  A> away.

The only person sneaking in new features is Guido <0.2 wink>.

Jeremy