[Python-Dev] 2.7 is here until 2020, please don't call it a waste.

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Sat, 30 May 2015 21:20:56 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Given the extensive complaints about the lack of corporate
> contribution to upstream CPython maintenance, the hostile reaction to
> a concrete proposal for such ongoing contributions has been both
> incredibly surprising *and* disappointing

IMHO, they were not more hostile than against individuals'
contributions of the same kind. Any patch proposal is bound to
controversy, that's a normal aspect of the process, and one that
contributors should usually be willing to go through.

Also, when there are in rules in place, most people want to see them
upholded, because that tends to promote fairness much more than when
exceptions are granted all over the place. So people's reactions have
really been understandable, if debatable.

(FTR, Intel contacted me in private about such contributions and I said
the backport of the computed gotos sounded ok to me -- since it has
turned out entirely harmless on the 3.x branches --; that doesn't mean I
like how this public discussion has turned out)

> The offer came with one string attached: that the Python 2.7 branch be
> opened up for performance improvements in addition to bug fixes. Since
> maintainability was the main concern with not backporting performance
> improvements in the first place, this seemed like a straight up win to
> me (and presumably to other folks aware of the offer), so it never
> even occurred to us
> that folks might not accept "because this proposal
> is backed by a credible offer of ongoing contributions to CPython
> maintenance and support" as a complete answer to the question of "Why
> accept this proposal to backport performance enhancements, and not
> previous proposals?".

You're making contribution some kind of contractual engagement. That's
not an obvious improvement, because it has some large impacts on the
power structure (for one, volunteers can't reasonably compete with
contractual engagements).

Regards

Antoine.