[SciPy-dev] a modest proposal for technology previews

[David Cournapeau]

On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 6:27 AM, Gael Varoquaux
<gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 04, 2008 at 02:50:05PM -0600, Travis E. Oliphant wrote:
>> In other words, create a *single* scikit that is the equivalent of
>> scipy.preview.  What is the benefit of having it in scipy.preview?
>
> It gets built and shipped on people's boxes.

Except it doesn't. Putting it into scipy does not make it magically
built and released. Again, the last release of scipy was in september
2007. As I pointed out previously, putting code into scipy makes it
*more* difficult to distribute, at least in practice.

If scipy were released regularly, then I would at least understand the
argument (I would still be against, though). But it isn't. And adding
code means it takes even more time to get it out. One more package
does not make much difference. But this just cannot work as a general
process, not without scaling the man power for scipy.

It is not a new problem; every project at a certain size has the same
problem. There is a need for a staging area. Without it, scipy.preview
would become the stating area (and that's not what Jarrod had in
mind). That's why I am strongly against scipy.preview in the current
state of affairs; it would practically become a staging area.

cheers,

David