[Python-Dev] Removing IDLE from the standard library (original) (raw)

Georg Brandl g.brandl at gmx.net
Sun Jul 11 23:33:14 CEST 2010

Am 11.07.2010 20:59, schrieb Glyph Lefkowitz:

On Jul 11, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Martin v. Löwis wrote:

Initially (five years ago!) I tried to overcome these issues by improving IDLE, solving problems and adding a few key features. Without going into details, suffice to say that IDLE hasn't improved much since 2005 despite my efforts. For example, see http://bugs.python.org/issue1529142, where it took nearly 3 years to fix a major issue from the moment I posted the first workaround. For another example, see http://bugs.python.org/issue3068, where I posted a patch for an extension configuration dialog over two years ago, and it hasn't received as much as a sneeze in response. I can understand that this is frustrating, but please understand that this is not specific to your patches, or to IDLE. Many other patches on bugs.python.org <http://bugs.python.org> remain unreviewed for many years. That's because many of the issues are really tricky, and there are very few people who both have the time and the expertise to evaluate them. This problem seems to me to be the root cause here. Guido proposes to give someone interested in IDLE commit access, and hopefully that will help in this particular area. But, as I recall, at the last language summit there was quite a bit of discussion about how to address the broader issue of patches falling into a black hole. Is anybody working on it? (This seems to me like an area where a judicious application of PSF funds might help; if every single bug were actively triaged and responded to, even if it weren't reviewed, and patch contributors were directed to take specific steps to elicit a response or a review, the fact that patch reviews take a while might not be so bad.)

Honestly, how would you feel as a committer to have scores of issues assigned to you -- as a consequence of speedy triage -- knowing that you have to invest potentially hours of volunteer time into them, while the person doing the triaging is done with the bug in a few minutes and paid for it? I'd feel a little bit duped.

Georg

-- Thus spake the Lord: Thou shalt indent with four spaces. No more, no less. Four shall be the number of spaces thou shalt indent, and the number of thy indenting shall be four. Eight shalt thou not indent, nor either indent thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to four. Tabs are right out.

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