[Python-Dev] Docs of weak stdlib modules should encourage exploration of 3rd-party alternatives (original) (raw)

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Wed Mar 14 00:55:35 CET 2012

Brian Curtin wrote:

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 14:13, Kenneth Reitz <me at kennethreitz.com> wrote:

I think the cheesehop trove classifiers would be the ideal way to agnostically link to a page of packages related to the standard package in question. No need for sort order. Randomize the order for all I care. We still need to ensure we're suggesting quality projects. It doesn't make sense for us to suggest alternatives that we wouldn't want to use ourselves by just polling some list that anyone can get on.

"Need" is awfully strong. I don't believe it is the responsibility of the standard library to be judge and reviewer of third party packages that it doesn't control.

-1 on adding any sort of recommendations about third-party software except, at most, a case-by-case basis where absolutely necessary.

What problem are we actually trying to solve here? Do we think that there are users who really have no clue where to find 3rd party software AND don't know how to use Google, BUT read the Python docs? I find it difficult to believe that there are people who both read the docs and are so clueless that they need to be told that there are alternatives available and which they should be using.

Personally I think this is a solution in search of a problem. Judging by the python-tutor mailing list, even beginners know that they aren't limited to the stdlib and how to go about finding third party software. There are many more questions about PyGame and wxPython than there are about tkinter. There are plenty of questions about numpy. There are lots of questions about niche packages I'd never even heard of.

I simply don't think there is any evidence that there are appreciable numbers of Python coders, beginners or expert, who need to be told about third party software. Who are these people we're trying to reach out to?

This is documentation that receives hundreds of thousands of views a month*. We need to be picky about what goes in it.

Exactly why we should be wary of recommending specific packages.

Should we recommend wxPython over Pyjamas or PyGUI or PyGtk? On what basis? Whatever choice we make is going to be wrong for some people, and is potentially unfair to the maintainers of the packages left out. Should we recommend them all? That's no help to anyone. Make no recommendation at all? That's the status quo.

What counts as "best of breed" can change rapidly -- software churn is part of the reason that the packages aren't in the stdlib in the first place. It can also be a matter of taste and convention. There are a few non-brainers, like numpy, but everything else, no, let's not open this can of worms.

I can see no benefit to this suggestion, and all sorts of ways that this might go badly.

-- Steven

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