[Python-Dev] RE: Call for reviewer! (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim_one@email.msn.com
Sat, 19 Aug 2000 05:19:23 -0400

[David Goodger]

I thought the "backwards compatibility" issue might be a sticking point ;> And I can see why.

So, if I were to rework the patch to remove the incompatibility, would it fly or still be shot down?

I'm afraid "shot down" is the answer, but it's no reflection on the quality of your work. Guido simply doesn't want any enhancements of any kind to getopt to be distributed in the standard library. He made that very clear in a conference call with the PythonLabs team, and as the interim 2.0 release manager du jour I pass that on in his absence.

This wasn't a surprise to me, as there's a very long history of rejected getopt patches. There are certainly users who want fancier getopt capabilities! The problem in making them happy is threefold: (1) most users don't (as the lack of positive response in this thread on Python-Dev confirms); (2) users who do want them seem unable to agree on how they should work (witness the bifurcation in your own patch set); and, (3) Guido actively wants to keep the core getopt simple in the absence of both demand for, and consensus on, more than it offers already.

This needn't mean your work is dead. It will find users if it you make it available on the web, and even in the core Andrew Kuchling pointed out that the Distutils folks are keen to have a fancier getopt for their own purposes:

[Andrew]

Note that there's Lib/distutils/fancygetopt.py. The docstring reads:

Wrapper around the standard getopt module that provides the following additional features: * short and long options are tied together * options have help strings, so fancygetopt could potentially create a complete usage summary * options set attributes of a passed-in object

So you might want to talk to Gred Ward about that too (Greg is the Distuils Dood).

[back to David]

... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! As part of the deal, you get a free testgetopt.py regression test module! Act now; vote +1! (Actually, you'll get that no matter what you vote. I'll remove the getoptdict- specific stuff and resubmit it if this patch is rejected.)

We don't have to ask Guido abut that: a test module for getopt would be accepted with extreme (yet intangible ) gratitude. Thank you!