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

Gregory P. Smith greg at krypto.org
Sun Jan 29 22:39:10 CET 2012

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 9:26 AM, Alex <alex.gaynor at gmail.com> wrote:

Eli Bendersky <eliben gmail.com> writes:

Hello, Following an earlier discussion on python-ideas [1], we would like to propose the following PEP for review. Discussion is welcome. The PEP can also be viewed in HTML form at http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0408/ [1] http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2012-January/013246.html I'm -1 on this, for a pretty simple reason. Something goes into preview, instead of it's final destination directly because it needs feedback/possibly changes. However, given the release cycle of the stdlib (~18 months), any feedback it gets can't be seen by actual users until it's too late. Essentially you can only get one round of stdlib. I think a significantly healthier process (in terms of maximizing feedback and getting something into it's best shape) is to let a project evolve naturally on PyPi and in the ecosystem, give feedback to it from an inclusion perspective, and then include it when it becomes ready on it's own merits. The counter argument to  this is that putting it in the stdlib gets you signficantly more eyeballs (and hopefully more feedback, therefore), my only response to this is: if it doesn't get eyeballs on PyPi I don't think there's a great enough need to justify it in the stdlib.

-1 from me as well.

How is the preview namespace any different than the PendingDeprecationWarning that nobody ever uses? Nobody is likely to write significant code depending on anything in preview thus the amount of feedback received would be low.

A better way to get additional feedback would be to promote libraries that we are considering including by way of direct links to them on pypi from the relevant areas of the Python documentation (including the Module Reference / Index pages?) for that release and let the feedback on them roll in via that route.

An example of this working: ipaddr is ready to go in. It got the eyeballs and API modifications while still a pypi library as a result of the discussion around the time it was originally suggested as being added. I or any other committers have simply not added it yet.

-gps

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