[Python-ideas] Move Demo scripts under Lib (original) (raw)

M.-A. Lemburg mal at egenix.com
Tue Oct 26 16:15:47 CEST 2010

Alexander Belopolsky wrote:

I originally proposed this under the Demo and Tools cleanup issue [1]. The idea was to create a new package "demo" in the standard library which will host selected demo programs or modules that currently reside in the Demo/ directory of the source distribution. There are several advantages to this approach:

1. Discoverability. Currently, various distributions place demo scripts in different places or not include them at all. There is no easy way for an end user to discover them. With a demo package, there will be a natural place in the python manual to document demo scripts and users will be able to run them using -m option. IDEs will be able to present demo source code and documentation consistently. 2. Test coverage. One of the points raised in [1] was that Demo scripts are not routinely tested. While it is not strictly necessary to move them under Lib to enable testing, doing so will put these scripts on the same footing as the rest of the standard library modules eliminating an unnecessary barrier to writing tests. 3. Quality/relevance. Many scripts in Demo are very old and do not reflect modern best practices. By picking and choosing what goes to Lib/demo, we can improve the demo collection without removing older scripts that some may find useful. One objection raised to this idea was that Demo scripts do not have the same stability of the API and backward compatibility requirements as the rest of the standard library. I don't think this is a serious issue. As long as we don't start importing demo modules from other stdlib modules, there is no impact on the stdlib itself from changing demo APIs. Users may be warned that their production programs should not depend on the demo modules. I think the word "demo" itself suggests that. What do you think?

Calling a stdlib package "demo" or "example" is not a good idea, since those are rather common package names in existing applications.

I also don't really see the point in moving scripts to the stdlib. The lib modules are usually not executable or meant for execution and you'd normally expect scripts to be under .../bin rather than .../lib.

Why don't you turn the ones you find useful into PyPI packages to install separately ?

[1] http://bugs.python.org/issue7962#msg111677

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