[SciPy-Dev] scipy.stats

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

>> Well - but that is because you don't maintenance.   Imagine a
>> maintainer puts in a lot of effort to make the code well-documented
>> and tested.  Then, you have put in new code that has neither
>> documentation nor tests.    As a good maintainer, it's really painful
>> for them that there's new code without documentation or tests.   They
>> can only feel abused in that situation, because it seems as if you are
>> expecting them to clean up after you - without asking.
>
> I don't think that is fair.  I have been "maintaining" SciPy and NumPy code for over 10 years.   I have done an immense amount of work in porting SciPy to NumPy and continuing to fix bugs that I am made aware of.  I don't have as much time to commit to SciPy as I would like.

I wasn't really saying whether it was fair or not, I was only trying
to explain why it might cause offense.

When I say that you don't do maintenance, I mean that you are not
currently the person who has to make sure that the code is readable
and maintainable.   That is hard and often thankless work.

I presume that you agree that numpy and scipy code should have
documentation and tests.    I presume also that when you commit code
without documentation or tests, that you do not usually intend to come
back and do these later - say - before the next release.   That means
that someone else has to do it.  It will take them a lot longer than
it would take you because they don't know the code as well.

I realize this is not your intent, but, it's tempting in this
situation to feel that you think that your time is more valuable than
the person who has to write the documentation and tests - and that's a
painful feeling to have - hence - I believe - the level of bad feeling
that arises...

See you,

Matthew