[Python-Dev] Need Survey Answers from Core Developers (original) (raw)

Anthony Baxter anthony at interlink.com.au
Wed May 23 04:41:47 CEST 2007

On Saturday 19 May 2007, skip at pobox.com wrote:

Jeff> 1) How is the project governed? How does the community make Jeff> decisions on what goes into a release?

Consensus (most of the time) and GvR pronouncements for significant changes. There are situations where Guido has simply pronounced when the community seemed unable to settle on one solution. Decorators come to mind.

Plus of course there's the minor detail of features needing to be implemented. If no-one steps up to complete something, it can just get deferred. See PEP 356's list of deferred features.

Jeff> 2) Does the language have a formal defined release plan?

Jeff> I know Zope 3's release plan, every six months, but not that of Jeff> Python. Is there a requirement to push a release out the door Jeff> every N months, as some projects do, or is each release Jeff> separately negotiated with developers around a planned set Jeff> of features? PEP 6? PEP 101? PEP 102? There is no hard-and-fast time schedule. I believe minor releases leave the station approximately every 18-24 months, micro releases roughly every six months.

The goal is to have a major release (I consider 2.5, 2.6 &c to be "major", and 2.5.1, 2.5.2 &c "minor" - this is how it's always been, afaik) "when they're done". Typically this is around 18-24 months. There's not (yet?) a formal release plan for the minor/bugfix releases, but they've been every 6 months since late 2003. Obviously, if a major bug is found then a release happens sooner.

Jeff> 3) Some crude idea of how many new major and minor features were Jeff> added in the last release? Yes, I know this is difficult -- the Jeff> idea it so get some measure of the evolution/stability of cPython Jeff> re features. Jython and IronPython are probably changing rapidly Jeff> -- cPython, not such much.

We don't break down "major" or "minor" features, but according to the What's New In Python 2.5 doc:

A search through the SVN change logs finds there were 353 patches applied and 458 bugs fixed between Python 2.4 and 2.5. (Both figures are likely to be underestimates.)

The distinction between major and minor feature is pretty arbitrary, obviously.

-- Anthony Baxter <anthony at interlink.com.au> It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

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