[Python-Dev] Struct module format code addition (previously was in the subprocess thread) (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Wed Oct 13 07:22:56 CEST 2004

Josiah Carlson wrote:

There are so many other things to do, and I don't consider this feature (in whatever form) important, as this can be easily done in pure Python for those who need it.

The same thing can be said for some syntactic changes to Python over the years; yet that didn't stop list comprehensions, rich comparisons, iterators (generators being the language change that made them easier), etc., from changing the language.

Indeed. I wish some of the changes would not have been made (although the changes on your list are all fine). For those features, the potential user community is much larger than for the feature under discussion, and I feel I would waste my time for adding a feature that only few users ever need.

If you would like to debate the size of the user community: any significanly-large user community should have come up with a standard, pure-Python solution to the problem by now which would just wait for integration. This is IMO the process that should be followed for all library extensions: the library should be developed elsewhere, and wait some time for API and implementation stabilization. Only then it become candidate for inclusion into Python.

Regards, Martin

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