[Python-Dev] PEP 408 -- Standard library preview package (original) (raw)

Eric V. Smith eric at trueblade.com
Sat Jan 28 14:23:45 CET 2012

On 1/28/2012 2:10 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:

On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 3:22 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:

Executive summary:

If the promise to remove the module from preview is credible (ie, strictly kept), then preview will have a specific audience in those who want the stdlib candidate code and are willing to deal with a certain amount of instability in that code. People need to remember there's another half to this equation: the core dev side. The reason regex specifically isn't in the stdlib already is largely due to (perhaps excessive) concerns about the potential maintenance burden. It's not a small chunk of code and we don't want to deal with another bsddb.

...

Really, the main benefit for end users doesn't lie in preview itself: it lies in the positive effect preview will have on the long term evolution of the standard library, as it aims to turn python-dev's inherent conservatism (which is a good thing!) into a speed bump rather than a road block.

I was -0 on this proposal, but after Nick's discussion above I'm now +1.

I also think it's worth thinking about how multiprocessing would have benefited from the preview process.

And for people saying "just use PyPI": that tends to exclude many Windows users from trying out packages that aren't pure Python.

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