Hi,
Python 3.5 entered security fix only mode. Should we now remove the
"needs backport to 3.5" label? Other security only branches don't have
this label neither (3.3 and 3.4).
Victor
Recently I received 20 one-year licenses from JetBrains for the PyCharm IDE (Professional) and other JetBrains products (the licenses cover their "All Products Pack") for use in Python development. There are 11 licenses available - of the licenses I asked for last year, nine people took them up, so those are in use and come out of the allocation of 20.
Those of you who took up the licences last time should find that the tools continue to work normally. The licences expire on 27 November 2018.
If any others of you are interested in using these licenses, let me know off-list and I will forward the license access details to you. To access the licenses, you will need to have (or create) a JetBrains account.
Regards,
Vinay Sajip
Hello committers,
since this got pretty long, here's the tl;dr:
- we're at the point where it is hard to make mailing lists work for us;
- we're switching to Discourse; it's better in many ways;
- go to https://discuss.python.org/ <https://discuss.python.org/> and create your account there;
- please do not post to python-committers for the remainder of the year to give Discourse a real shot.
And now the long version.
What's the issue?
During the core sprint in Redmond we discussed how we discuss. The overwhelming feel is that we have reached the limits of what is possible with mailing lists. We identified e-mail as a contributor to some of the problems we're dealing with now. To fix more and whine less, I talked with everybody in Redmond about a possible replacement for the trusty mailing list. We identified one: Discourse.
What is it?
Discourse is forum software started in 2013 by Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward, and Sam Saffron. It's used by many large scale open source projects and companies, including Github Atom, Twitter Developers, Rust, Kotlin, Elixir, Docker, Codeacademy, Patreon, EVE Online, and Imgur. It's open source (Ruby, GPL2), it supports plugins and has an API.
Why is it better than e-mail?
It's both a Web app and a terrific mobile application. It supports regular flat conversational threads and collapsible replies. There is community moderation where users can flag inappropriate messages to notify moderators, moderators and authors can lock topics, move discussions between categories, archive things that are no longer applicable, and so on.
You can edit posts, quote posts, link between posts, add rich media, code snippets with syntax highlighting, there's Markdown support. You can still use it via e-mail similarly to how GitHub notifications work. See: https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-via-email-support/14003 <https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-via-email-support/14003>
There is a user trust system where proven community members get more power in time, for example to fix typos and move topics to a better category.
There's much more: dynamic notifications, topic summaries, emojis, spam blocking, single sing-on, two-factor authentication, social login support, and so on. Read: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-mailing-lists/54298 <https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-mailing-lists/54298>.
What about Zulip?
Zulip is chat software which some of us find useful but its UI is proving to be challenging for many of us, the mobile application leaves a lot to be desired, and it did not end up moving discussions out of the mailing lists. I see Zulip as replacement for IRC whereas Discourse is replacement for mailing lists (or both; we'll see!).
Where do I sign up?
Create an account at https://discuss.python.org/ <https://discuss.python.org/>. You'll recognize the set up as essentially mirroring the main mailing lists:
- Committers
- Users
- Ideas
There's also Discourse-specific sections:
- Discourse Feedback (post here if things don't work like you'd like)
- Discourse Staff (hidden category for moderators and admins of the instance, boring discussion)
- Inquisition (hidden category for users with trust level 3+)
As you can see, I combined python-committers and python-dev into just "Committers". If we find in the future that this is too limiting, we can always open up another category. For now though I'd like to avoid the fate of python-dev where there's 20k+ subscribers and we don't know who is who.
CALL TO ACTION
We'd like to heavily test this new forum. As such, I would like to ask you to NOT USE python-committers for the remainder of the year and direct all conversation to Discourse.
The goal to replace the mailing lists with Discourse met unanimous support at the core sprint. As long as we don't identify any deal breakers in October, I will send an e-mail like this to python-dev on November 1st, and to python-list and python-ideas on December 1st. If everything goes smoothly, those four mailing lists will be archived by end of this year. Other mailing lists are welcome to port over to Discourse too.
Acknowledgements
Pablo and Ernest worked on setting up this instance for us (thank you both! 🖤). The question whether Discourse or the Python Software Foundation are going to pay for this infrastructure is still open but, as Elon Musk likes to say, funding is secured. Yury and I are helping in configuring the instance.
Future work
We'll be enabling GitHub and social logins soon, ideally with adding identified committers to the committers group by default. We are looking into this right now. In the mean time, please request membership, an existing member will add you. We'd like to migrate old discussion off of the mailing lists to our Discourse instance so that search is immediately useful. We'll look into that after the governance crisis is resolved.
- Ł
Here is the text of PEP 8013 for discussion and improvement (in
isolation from the other proposals, of course -- we're not ready for the
shoot-out yet.)
I'm keen to see the model be considered, but I don't feel the need to
tightly control the specific content in the PEP, so feel free to send
your own PRs if you have definitive improvements.
For the next few days I'm also going to have varying amounts of ability
to read and respond to email. I'll try and catch up by the weekend or
early next week.
Rendered version at: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-8013/
---
PEP: 8013
Title: The External Council Governance Model
Author: Steve Dower <steve.dower(a)python.org>
Status: Draft
Type: Informational
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 2018-09-14
Abstract
========
This PEP proposes a new model of Python governance based on a Group
of Unbiased Independent Directors of Order (GUIDO) tasked with making
final decisions for the language. It differs from PEP 8010 by
specifically not proposing a central singular leader, and from PEP
8011 by disallowing core committers from being council members. It
describes the size and role of the council, how the initial group of
council members will be chosen, any term limits of the council
members, and how successors will be elected.
It also spends significant time discussing the intended behaviour of
this model. By design, many processes are not specified here but are
left to the people involved. In order to select people who will make
the best decisions, it is important for those involved to understand
the expectations of GUIDO but it is equally important to allow GUIDO
the freedom to adjust process requirements for varying circumstances.
This only works when process is unspecified, but all participants have
similar expectations.
This PEP does *not* name the members of GUIDO. Should this model be
adopted, it will be codified in PEP 13 along with the names of all
officeholders described in this PEP.
Open Discussion Points
======================
Some suggestions in this document are currently weak suggestions, and
are open to change during the discussion period. These include:
* We can change the name of the group. "Council of Auditors" is the
suggested alternative, though "Python Inquisition" is very tempting
if we believe we can be clear about the source of the name [1]_
* We can change voting procedures, timelines, and tie-breakage rules
The Importance of the Grey Area
===============================
In any actual decision-making process, there is going to be grey area.
This includes unexpected scenarios, and cases where there is no
"correct" answer.
Many process plans attempt to minimise grey area by defining processes
clearly enough that no flexibility is required.
This proposal deliberately goes the other way. The aim is to provide a
robust framework for choosing the best people to handle unexpected
situations, without defining how those people should handle those
situations.
Examples are provided of "good" responses to some situations as an
illustration. The hope is that the "best" people are the best because
they would live up to those examples. The process that is proposed has
been designed to minimise the damage that may be caused when those
people turn out not to be the best.
Grey area is guaranteed to exist. This proposal deliberately embraces
and works within that, rather than attempting to prevent it.
Model Overview
==============
Key people and their functions
------------------------------
The Group of Unbiased Independent Directors of Order (GUIDO) is a
council of varying size, typically two to four people, who are elected
for the duration of a Python release. One member of GUIDO is
considered the President, who has some minor points of authority over
the other members.
GUIDO has responsibility for reviewing controversial decisions in the
form of PEPs written by members of the core development team. GUIDO
may choose to accept a PEP exactly as presented, or may request
clarification or changes. These changes may be of any form and for any
reason. This flexibility is intentional, and allows the process to
change over time as different members are elected to GUIDO. See the
later sections of this document for examples of the kinds of requests
that are expected.
GUIDO only pronounces on PEPs submitted to python-committers. There is
no expectation that GUIDO follows or participates on any other mailing
lists. (Note that this implies that only core developers may submit
PEPs. Non-core developers may write and discuss proposals on other
mailing lists, but without a core developer willing to support the
proposal by requesting pronouncement, it cannot proceed to acceptance.
This is essentially the same as the current system, but is made
explicit here to ensure that members of GUIDO are not expected to deal
with proposals that are not supported by at least one core developer.)
GUIDO may not delegate authority to individuals who have not been
elected by the core developer team. (One relevant case here is that
this changes the implementation of the existing BDFL-Delegate system,
though without necessarily changing the spirit of that system. See the
later sections for more discussion on this point.)
The Release Manager (RM) is also permitted the same ability to request
changes on any PEPs that specify the release they are responsible for.
After feature freeze, the RM retains this responsibility for their
release, while GUIDO rotates and begins to focus on the subsequent
release. This is no different from the current process. The process
for selection of a RM is not changed in this proposal.
Core developers are responsible for electing members of GUIDO, and
have the ability to call a "vote of no confidence" against a member of
GUIDO. The details of these votes are discussed in a later section.
Where discussions between core developers and members of GUIDO appear
to be ongoing but unfruitful, the President may step in to overrule
either party. Where the discussion involves the President, it should
be handled using a vote of no confidence.
Members of GUIDO may choose to resign at any point. If at least two
members of GUIDO remain, they may request a new election to refill the
group. If only one member remains, the election is triggered
automatically. (The scenario when the President resigns is described
in a later section.)
The intended balance of power is that the core developers will elect
members of GUIDO who reflect the direction and have the trust of the
development team, and also have the ability to remove members who do
not honour commitments made prior to election.
Regular decision process
------------------------
Regular decisions continue to be made as at present.
For the sake of clarity, controversial decisions require a PEP, and
any decisions requiring a PEP are considered as controversial.
GUIDO may be asked to advise on whether a decision would be better
made using the controversial decision process, or individual members
of GUIDO may volunteer such a suggestion, but the core development
team is not bound by this advice.
Controversial decision process
------------------------------
Controversial decisions are always written up as PEPs, following the
existing process. The approver (formerly "BDFL-Delegate") is always
GUIDO, and can no longer be delegated. Note that this does not
prevent GUIDO from deciding to nominate a core developer to assess the
proposal and provide GUIDO with a recommendation, which is essentially
the same as the current delegation process.
GUIDO will pronounce on PEPs submitted to python-committers with a
request for pronouncement. Any member of GUIDO, or the current RM, may
request changes to a PEP for any reason, provided they include some
indication of what additional work is required to meet their
expectations. See later sections for examples of expected reasons.
When all members of GUIDO and the RM indicate that they have no
concerns with a PEP, it is formally accepted. When one or more members
of GUIDO fail to respond in a reasonable time, the President of GUIDO
may choose to interpret that as implied approval. Failure of the
President to respond should be handled using a vote of no confidence.
Election terms
--------------
Members of GUIDO are elected for the duration of a release. The
members are elected prior to feature freeze for the previous release,
and hold their position until feature freeze for their release.
Members may seek re-election as many times as they like. There are no
term limits. It is up to the core developers to prevent re-election of
GUIDO members where there is consensus that the individual should not
serve again.
Election voting process
------------------------
The election process for each member of GUIDO proceeds as follows:
* a nomination email is sent to python-committers
* a seconding email is sent
* the nominee is temporarily added to python-committers for the
purpose of introducing themselves and presenting their position
* voting opens two weeks prior to the scheduled feature freeze of the
previous release
* votes are contributed by modifying a document in a private github
repository
* each core developer may add +1 votes for as many candidates as they
like
* after seven days, voting closes
* the nominee with the most votes is elected as President of GUIDO
* the next three nominees with the most votes and also at least 50%
the number of votes received by the President are elected as the
other members of GUIDO
* where ties need to be resolved, the RM may apply one extra vote for
their preferred candidates
* accepted nominees remain on python-committers; others are removed
No-confidence voting process
----------------------------
A vote of no confidence proceeds as follows:
* a vote of no confidence email is sent to python-committers, naming
the affected member of GUIDO, justifying the nomination, and
optionally listing accepted PEPs that the nominator believes should
be reverted
* a seconding email is sent within seven days
* the nominated member of GUIDO is allowed seven days to respond,
after which the nominator or the seconder may withdraw
* if no nominator or seconder is available, no further action is
taken
* voting opens immediately
* each core developer may add a +1 vote (remove the GUIDO member) or
a -1 vote (keep the GUIDO member) by modifying a document in a
private github repository
* after seven days, voting closes
* if +1 votes exceed -1 votes, the GUIDO member is removed from
python-committers and any nominated PEPs are reverted
* if requested by the remaining members of GUIDO, or if only one
member of GUIDO remains, a new election to replace the removed
member may be held following the usual process.
* in the case of removing the President of GUIDO, the candidate
who originally received the second-most votes becomes President
Examples of intended behaviour
==============================
This section describes some examples of the kind of interactions that
we hope to see between GUIDO and the core developers. None of these
are binding descriptions, but are intended to achieve some consensus
on the types of processes we expect. GUIDO candidates may campaign
on the basis of whatever process they prefer, and core developers
should allocate votes on this basis.
Scenario 1 - The Case of the Vague PEP
--------------------------------------
Often in the past, initial proposals have lacked sufficient detail to
be implementable by anyone other than the proposer. To avoid this,
GUIDO should read proposals "fresh" when submitted, and without
inferring or using any implied context. Then, when an aspect of a PEP
is not clear, GUIDO can reject the proposal and request
clarifications.
Since the proposal is rejected, it must be modified and resubmitted in
order to be reviewed again. GUIDO will determine how much guidance to
provide when rejecting the PEP, as that will affect how many times it
will likely be resubmitted (and hence affect GUIDO's own workload).
This ensures that the final PEP text stands alone with all required
information.
Scenario 2 - The Case of the Endless Discussion
-----------------------------------------------
From time to time, a discussion between Python contributors may seem
to be no longer providing value. For example, when a large number of
emails are repeating points that have already been dealt with, or are
actively hostile towards others, there is no point continuing the
"discussion".
When such a discussion is occurring on python-committers as part of a
request for pronouncement, a member of GUIDO should simply declare the
thread over by rejecting the proposal. In most known cases, discussion
of this sort indicates that not all concerns have been sufficiently
addressed in the proposal and the author may need to enhance some
sections.
Alternatively, and in the absence of any rejection from the other
members of GUIDO, the President may declare the thread over by
accepting the proposal. Ideally this would occur after directly
confirming with the rest of GUIDO and the RM that there are no
concerns among them.
When such a discussion is occurring on another list, members of GUIDO
should be viewed as respected voices similar to other core developers
(particularly those core developers who are the named experts for the
subject area). While none have specific authority to end a thread,
preemptively stating an intent to block a proposal is a useful way to
defuse potentially useless discussions. Members of GUIDO who
voluntarily follow discussions other than on python-committers are
allowed to suggest the proposer withdraw, but can only actually
approve or reject a proposal that is formally submitted for
pronouncement.
Scenario 3 - The Case of the Unconsidered Users
-----------------------------------------------
Some proposals in the past may be written up and submitted for
pronouncement without considering the impact on particular groups of
users. For example, a proposal that affects the dependencies required
to use Python on various machines may have an adverse impact on some
users, even if many are unaffected due to the dependencies being
typically available by default.
Where a proposal does not appear to consider all users, GUIDO might
choose to use their judgement and past experience to determine that
more users are affected by the change than described in the PEP, and
request that the PEP also address these users. They should identify
the group of users clearly enough that the proposer is able to also
identify these users, and either clarify how they were addressed, or
made amendments to the PEP to explicitly address them. (Note that this
does not involve evaluating the usefulness of the feature to various
user groups, but simply whether the PEP indicates that the usefulness
of the feature has been evaluated.)
Where a proposal appears to have used flawed logic or incorrect data
to come to a certain conclusion, GUIDO might choose to use other
sources of information (such as the prior discussion or a submission
from other core developers) to request reconsideration of certain
points. The proposer does not necessarily need to use the exact
information obtained by GUIDO to update their proposal, provided that
whatever amendments they make are satisfactory to GUIDO. For example,
a PEP may indicate that 30% of users would be affected, while GUIDO
may argue that 70% of users are affected. A successful amendment may
include a different but more reliable percentage, or may be rewritten
to no longer depend on the number of affected users.
References
==========
.. [1] The Spanish Inquisition, `<https://youtu.be/Ixgc_FGam3s>`_
Copyright
=========
This document has been placed in the public domain.
What's the current plan for what version of Python we release after 3.9?
The reason I'm asking this is because I frequently need to refer to
*that version* of Python in the documentation, especially when I'm
deprecating APIs or behavior. Right now I'm saying "Python 4.0"
implying that 4.0 will be released right after 3.9.
I've heard multiple opinions on this subject. One of them is that we
should release 4.0 when we have a major new change, like removal of
the GIL or introduction of a JIT compiler. On the other hand, we have
no estimate when we have such a change. We also don't want Python 4.0
to be backwards incompatible with Python 3.0 (at least not at the
scale of 2 vs 3). So to me, it seems logical that we simply release
Python 4.0 after Python 3.9. After all, after 3.9 Python will be
drastically different from 3.0 and from 2.7. It sounds better. :)
Finally, I'm not sure we need a new governance in place to make this
decision or maybe we can make it now. That's why I'm posting this to
python-committers to see if core devs already have a consensus on
this.
Yury
Python 3.7.1rc1 and 3.6.7rc1 are now available. 3.7.1rc1 is the release
preview of the first maintenance release of Python 3.7, the latest feature
release of Python. 3.6.7rc1 is the release preview of the next maintenance
release of Python 3.6, the previous feature release of Python. Assuming no
critical problems are found prior to 2018-10-06, no code changes are
planned between these release candidates and the final releases. These
release candidates are intended to give you the opportunity to test the
new security and bug fixes in 3.7.1 and 3.6.7. We strongly encourage you
to test your projects and report issues found to bugs.python.org as soon
as possible.
Please keep in mind that these are preview releases and, thus, their use
is not recommended for production environments.
You can find these releases and more information here:
https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-371rc1/https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-367rc1/
--
Ned Deily
nad(a)python.org -- []
Hi,
I'm choosing to forward this to python-committers because I don't think
python-ideas is a reasonable place to discuss CoC decisions.
I think the action taken by Brett (apparently decided with Titus and a
mysterious "conduct working group") is not the right one:
- a definitive ban is an extremely strong decision that should only be
taken if nothing else works. May I remind that Anatoly was able to post
prolifically and unconstructively for several years, being warned
several times, before being finally banned? Comparatively, this one ban
seems expeditive.
- the reasons given, to me, don't make sense at all. The word "n-----"
is not a forbidden word if you want to describe, precisely, linguistics
and the relativity of meanings (instead of actually *qualifying* someone
or a groupe of people), which is what the OP claimed to do. The other
reasons look like a similar kind of over-reaction. Even if something
there looks inappropriate to you, it's still enough of a grey area that
a ban is absolutely the wrong answer.
I deduce that it's ok to say "slave" in a discussion instead of using an
expression such as "the s-word". Why one term is allowed and the other,
not, may be clear to Americans (or, perhaps, a large fraction thereof),
but hey, it's not clear to other people around the world. Banning a
(apparently) Dutch person because he doesn't understand American
standards of offense is not only unfair, but it makes our community
*not* inclusive of other cultures.
As a French person myself, I could not, even if I wanted to, turn myself
into an authentic American: what is obvious to you is not obvious to me
and it would be extremely brutal and humiliating to ban me for having
the wrong nationality and the wrong culture. I will ask: please
consider the work and effort that it *already* takes for other people to
adapt to standards of discussion that are, obviously, those of a
particular culture. Otherwise you're raising barriers even more, not
lowering them.
At the end of it, it looks like we have a real moderation problem.
python-ideas threads frequently veer out into unconstructive
back-and-forths (and, well, that's not *only* the ethically-sensitive
threads). The CoC is being applied erratically, sometimes
precipitately, by apparently overworked and emotionally exhausted
moderators, with bad consequences on the quality of the decisions.
Moderators should not become emotionally exhausted (which means we need
a more adequate discussion system *and* a more collegial, spread out,
team of moderators); and, if they become so, I would humbly suggest it's
a better idea - even if not always easy to follow - to step back and
take some rest than make decisions in such a state. We also need real
guidelines to the moderators as to which decision on the scale of
possible decisions to apply, depending on severity of the offense /
violation and on the "offendor"'s past behaviour.
In the end, I hope we can set ourselves better moderation standards. As
for me, I find the current situation very worrying, including for my
ability to contribute constructively to Python. If I have to fear
banning for every word that I say and that might be deemed inappropriate
in the moderators' culture, I might just as well leave instead of
feeling stressed and anguished everytime I post something. I would not
want to live this in paid work: why would I endure it as a volunteer,
while my main gratification should be the pleasure taken in contributing?
Regards
Antoine.
----- Message Transféré -----
Date : Thu, 20 Sep 2018 11:56:05 -0700
De : Brett Cannon <brett-+ZN9ApsXKcEdnm+yROfE0A(a)public.gmane.org>
À : Jacco van Dorp <j.van.dorp-i74+SDIRvn1mR6Xm/wNWPw(a)public.gmane.org>
Cc : python-ideas <python-ideas-+ZN9ApsXKcEdnm+yROfE0A(a)public.gmane.org>
Groupe de discussion : gmane.comp.python.ideas
Sujet : CoC violation (was: Retire or reword the "Beautiful is better
than ugly" Zen clause)
The below email was reported to the PSF board for code of conduct
violations and then passed on to the conduct working group to decide on
an appropriate response.
Based on the WG's recommendation and after discussing it with Titus, the
decision has been made to ban Jacco from python-ideas. Trivializing
assault, using the n-word, and making inappropriate comments about
someone's mental stability are all uncalled for and entirely
unnecessary to carry on a reasonable discourse of conversation that
remains welcoming to others.
On the recommendation of Ammar Askar and with Serhiy's endorsement on
Zulip [0], I've given Karthikeyan Singaravelan (CC'd) triage
privileges on bugs.python.org.
Karthikeyan, please use your new-found powers for good, and don't
hesitate to ask for guidance if you need it. Keep up the good work,
and thank you!
[0] https://python.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/116501-workflow/subject/bug.20t…
--
Zach
Perhaps worth including in PEP 8002, the overview of other governance
models? (Though the process described here seems to be JS's equivalent of
our PEP process -- it doesn't say anything about how TC39 gets formed or
how non-technical decisions are handled.)
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Lu <jamtlu(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 4:25 AM
Subject: [Python-ideas] JS’ governance model is worth inspecting
To: <python-ideas(a)python.org>
JS’ decisions are made by a body known as TC39, a fairly/very small group
of JS implementers.
First, JS has an easy and widely supported way to modify the language for
yourself: Babel. Babel transpires your JS to older JS, which is then run.
You can publish your language modification on the JS package manager, npm.
When a feature is being considered for inclusion in mainline JS, the
proposal must first gain a champion (represented by 🚀)that is a member of
TC-39. The guidelines say that the proposal’s features should already have
found use in the community. Then it moves through three stages, and the
champion must think the proposal is ready for the next stage before it can
move on. I’m hazy on what the criterion for each of the three stages is.
The fourth stage is approved.
I believe the global TC39 committee meets regularly in person, and at those
meetings, proposals can advance stages- these meetings are frequent enough
for the process to be fast and slow enough that people can have the time to
try out a feature before it becomes main line JS. Meeting notes are made
public.
The language and its future features are discussed on ESDiscuss.org, which
is surprisingly filled with quality and respectful discussion, largely from
experts in the JavaScript language.
I’m fairly hazy on the details, this is just the summary off the top of my
head.
—
I’m not saying this should be Python’s governance model, just to keep JS’
in mind.
_______________________________________________
Python-ideas mailing list
Python-ideas(a)python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
--
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)