[Python-Dev] Encouraging developers

[A.M. Kuchling]

>From <http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/mar-07/five-things-I-hate-about-python>:

	4. The patch mafia. I like everyone on python-dev that I meet,
	but somehow it is annoyingly difficult to get a patch into
	Python. Like threading, and the stdlib, this is a mixed
	blessing: you certainly don't want every Joe Schmoe checking
	in whatever crud he wants. However, the barrier is high enough
	that I no longer have much interest in spending the time to
	shepherd a patch through. Yes, this is probably all my fault
	-- but I still hate it!

FWIW, I have a related perception that we aren't getting new core
developers. These two problems are probably related: people don't get
patches processed and don't become core developers, and we don't have
enough core developers to process patches in a timely way.  And so
we're stuck.

Any ideas for fixing this problem?

Tangentially related:
At PyCon, there was general agreement that exposing a read-only
Bazaar/Mercurial/git/whatever version of the repository wouldn't be
too much effort, and might make things easier for external people
developing patches.  Thomas Wouters apparently has private scripts
that perform the conversion.  What needs to be done to move ahead with
this idea?

--amk