Python-Dev December 2014

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PEP 1, PEP Purpose and Guidelines
by barry＠zope.com 18 May '21

18 May '21

It has been a while since I posted a copy of PEP 1 to the mailing lists and newsgroups. I've recently done some updating of a few sections, so in the interest of gaining wider community participation in the Python development process, I'm posting the latest revision of PEP 1 here. A version of the PEP is always available on-line at http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html Enjoy, -Barry -------------------- snip snip -------------------- PEP: 1 Title: PEP Purpose and Guidelines Version: $Revision: 1.36 $ Last-Modified: $Date: 2002/07/29 18:34:59 $ Author: Barry A. Warsaw, Jeremy Hylton Status: Active Type: Informational Created: 13-Jun-2000 Post-History: 21-Mar-2001, 29-Jul-2002 What is a PEP? PEP stands for Python Enhancement Proposal. A PEP is a design document providing information to the Python community, or describing a new feature for Python. The PEP should provide a concise technical specification of the feature and a rationale for the feature. We intend PEPs to be the primary mechanisms for proposing new features, for collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions that have gone into Python. The PEP author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions. Because the PEPs are maintained as plain text files under CVS control, their revision history is the historical record of the feature proposal[1]. Kinds of PEPs There are two kinds of PEPs. A standards track PEP describes a new feature or implementation for Python. An informational PEP describes a Python design issue, or provides general guidelines or information to the Python community, but does not propose a new feature. Informational PEPs do not necessarily represent a Python community consensus or recommendation, so users and implementors are free to ignore informational PEPs or follow their advice. PEP Work Flow The PEP editor, Barry Warsaw <peps(a)python.org>, assigns numbers for each PEP and changes its status. The PEP process begins with a new idea for Python. It is highly recommended that a single PEP contain a single key proposal or new idea. The more focussed the PEP, the more successfully it tends to be. The PEP editor reserves the right to reject PEP proposals if they appear too unfocussed or too broad. If in doubt, split your PEP into several well-focussed ones. Each PEP must have a champion -- someone who writes the PEP using the style and format described below, shepherds the discussions in the appropriate forums, and attempts to build community consensus around the idea. The PEP champion (a.k.a. Author) should first attempt to ascertain whether the idea is PEP-able. Small enhancements or patches often don't need a PEP and can be injected into the Python development work flow with a patch submission to the SourceForge patch manager[2] or feature request tracker[3]. The PEP champion then emails the PEP editor <peps(a)python.org> with a proposed title and a rough, but fleshed out, draft of the PEP. This draft must be written in PEP style as described below. If the PEP editor approves, he will assign the PEP a number, label it as standards track or informational, give it status 'draft', and create and check-in the initial draft of the PEP. The PEP editor will not unreasonably deny a PEP. Reasons for denying PEP status include duplication of effort, being technically unsound, not providing proper motivation or addressing backwards compatibility, or not in keeping with the Python philosophy. The BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life, Guido van Rossum) can be consulted during the approval phase, and is the final arbitrator of the draft's PEP-ability. If a pre-PEP is rejected, the author may elect to take the pre-PEP to the comp.lang.python newsgroup (a.k.a. python-list(a)python.org mailing list) to help flesh it out, gain feedback and consensus from the community at large, and improve the PEP for re-submission. The author of the PEP is then responsible for posting the PEP to the community forums, and marshaling community support for it. As updates are necessary, the PEP author can check in new versions if they have CVS commit permissions, or can email new PEP versions to the PEP editor for committing. Standards track PEPs consists of two parts, a design document and a reference implementation. The PEP should be reviewed and accepted before a reference implementation is begun, unless a reference implementation will aid people in studying the PEP. Standards Track PEPs must include an implementation - in the form of code, patch, or URL to same - before it can be considered Final. PEP authors are responsible for collecting community feedback on a PEP before submitting it for review. A PEP that has not been discussed on python-list(a)python.org and/or python-dev(a)python.org will not be accepted. However, wherever possible, long open-ended discussions on public mailing lists should be avoided. Strategies to keep the discussions efficient include, setting up a separate SIG mailing list for the topic, having the PEP author accept private comments in the early design phases, etc. PEP authors should use their discretion here. Once the authors have completed a PEP, they must inform the PEP editor that it is ready for review. PEPs are reviewed by the BDFL and his chosen consultants, who may accept or reject a PEP or send it back to the author(s) for revision. Once a PEP has been accepted, the reference implementation must be completed. When the reference implementation is complete and accepted by the BDFL, the status will be changed to `Final.' A PEP can also be assigned status `Deferred.' The PEP author or editor can assign the PEP this status when no progress is being made on the PEP. Once a PEP is deferred, the PEP editor can re-assign it to draft status. A PEP can also be `Rejected'. Perhaps after all is said and done it was not a good idea. It is still important to have a record of this fact. PEPs can also be replaced by a different PEP, rendering the original obsolete. This is intended for Informational PEPs, where version 2 of an API can replace version 1. PEP work flow is as follows: Draft -> Accepted -> Final -> Replaced ^ +----> Rejected v Deferred Some informational PEPs may also have a status of `Active' if they are never meant to be completed. E.g. PEP 1. What belongs in a successful PEP? Each PEP should have the following parts: 1. Preamble -- RFC822 style headers containing meta-data about the PEP, including the PEP number, a short descriptive title (limited to a maximum of 44 characters), the names, and optionally the contact info for each author, etc. 2. Abstract -- a short (~200 word) description of the technical issue being addressed. 3. Copyright/public domain -- Each PEP must either be explicitly labelled as placed in the public domain (see this PEP as an example) or licensed under the Open Publication License[4]. 4. Specification -- The technical specification should describe the syntax and semantics of any new language feature. The specification should be detailed enough to allow competing, interoperable implementations for any of the current Python platforms (CPython, JPython, Python .NET). 5. Motivation -- The motivation is critical for PEPs that want to change the Python language. It should clearly explain why the existing language specification is inadequate to address the problem that the PEP solves. PEP submissions without sufficient motivation may be rejected outright. 6. Rationale -- The rationale fleshes out the specification by describing what motivated the design and why particular design decisions were made. It should describe alternate designs that were considered and related work, e.g. how the feature is supported in other languages. The rationale should provide evidence of consensus within the community and discuss important objections or concerns raised during discussion. 7. Backwards Compatibility -- All PEPs that introduce backwards incompatibilities must include a section describing these incompatibilities and their severity. The PEP must explain how the author proposes to deal with these incompatibilities. PEP submissions without a sufficient backwards compatibility treatise may be rejected outright. 8. Reference Implementation -- The reference implementation must be completed before any PEP is given status 'Final,' but it need not be completed before the PEP is accepted. It is better to finish the specification and rationale first and reach consensus on it before writing code. The final implementation must include test code and documentation appropriate for either the Python language reference or the standard library reference. PEP Template PEPs are written in plain ASCII text, and should adhere to a rigid style. There is a Python script that parses this style and converts the plain text PEP to HTML for viewing on the web[5]. PEP 9 contains a boilerplate[7] template you can use to get started writing your PEP. Each PEP must begin with an RFC822 style header preamble. The headers must appear in the following order. Headers marked with `*' are optional and are described below. All other headers are required. PEP: <pep number> Title: <pep title> Version: <cvs version string> Last-Modified: <cvs date string> Author: <list of authors' real names and optionally, email addrs> * Discussions-To: <email address> Status: <Draft | Active | Accepted | Deferred | Final | Replaced> Type: <Informational | Standards Track> * Requires: <pep numbers> Created: <date created on, in dd-mmm-yyyy format> * Python-Version: <version number> Post-History: <dates of postings to python-list and python-dev> * Replaces: <pep number> * Replaced-By: <pep number> The Author: header lists the names and optionally, the email addresses of all the authors/owners of the PEP. The format of the author entry should be address(a)dom.ain (Random J. User) if the email address is included, and just Random J. User if the address is not given. If there are multiple authors, each should be on a separate line following RFC 822 continuation line conventions. Note that personal email addresses in PEPs will be obscured as a defense against spam harvesters. Standards track PEPs must have a Python-Version: header which indicates the version of Python that the feature will be released with. Informational PEPs do not need a Python-Version: header. While a PEP is in private discussions (usually during the initial Draft phase), a Discussions-To: header will indicate the mailing list or URL where the PEP is being discussed. No Discussions-To: header is necessary if the PEP is being discussed privately with the author, or on the python-list or python-dev email mailing lists. Note that email addresses in the Discussions-To: header will not be obscured. Created: records the date that the PEP was assigned a number, while Post-History: is used to record the dates of when new versions of the PEP are posted to python-list and/or python-dev. Both headers should be in dd-mmm-yyyy format, e.g. 14-Aug-2001. PEPs may have a Requires: header, indicating the PEP numbers that this PEP depends on. PEPs may also have a Replaced-By: header indicating that a PEP has been rendered obsolete by a later document; the value is the number of the PEP that replaces the current document. The newer PEP must have a Replaces: header containing the number of the PEP that it rendered obsolete. PEP Formatting Requirements PEP headings must begin in column zero and the initial letter of each word must be capitalized as in book titles. Acronyms should be in all capitals. The body of each section must be indented 4 spaces. Code samples inside body sections should be indented a further 4 spaces, and other indentation can be used as required to make the text readable. You must use two blank lines between the last line of a section's body and the next section heading. You must adhere to the Emacs convention of adding two spaces at the end of every sentence. You should fill your paragraphs to column 70, but under no circumstances should your lines extend past column 79. If your code samples spill over column 79, you should rewrite them. Tab characters must never appear in the document at all. A PEP should include the standard Emacs stanza included by example at the bottom of this PEP. A PEP must contain a Copyright section, and it is strongly recommended to put the PEP in the public domain. When referencing an external web page in the body of a PEP, you should include the title of the page in the text, with a footnote reference to the URL. Do not include the URL in the body text of the PEP. E.g. Refer to the Python Language web site [1] for more details. ... [1] http://www.python.org When referring to another PEP, include the PEP number in the body text, such as "PEP 1". The title may optionally appear. Add a footnote reference that includes the PEP's title and author. It may optionally include the explicit URL on a separate line, but only in the References section. Note that the pep2html.py script will calculate URLs automatically, e.g.: ... Refer to PEP 1 [7] for more information about PEP style ... References [7] PEP 1, PEP Purpose and Guidelines, Warsaw, Hylton http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html If you decide to provide an explicit URL for a PEP, please use this as the URL template: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-xxxx.html PEP numbers in URLs must be padded with zeros from the left, so as to be exactly 4 characters wide, however PEP numbers in text are never padded. Reporting PEP Bugs, or Submitting PEP Updates How you report a bug, or submit a PEP update depends on several factors, such as the maturity of the PEP, the preferences of the PEP author, and the nature of your comments. For the early draft stages of the PEP, it's probably best to send your comments and changes directly to the PEP author. For more mature, or finished PEPs you may want to submit corrections to the SourceForge bug manager[6] or better yet, the SourceForge patch manager[2] so that your changes don't get lost. If the PEP author is a SF developer, assign the bug/patch to him, otherwise assign it to the PEP editor. When in doubt about where to send your changes, please check first with the PEP author and/or PEP editor. PEP authors who are also SF committers, can update the PEPs themselves by using "cvs commit" to commit their changes. Remember to also push the formatted PEP text out to the web by doing the following: % python pep2html.py -i NUM where NUM is the number of the PEP you want to push out. See % python pep2html.py --help for details. Transferring PEP Ownership It occasionally becomes necessary to transfer ownership of PEPs to a new champion. In general, we'd like to retain the original author as a co-author of the transferred PEP, but that's really up to the original author. A good reason to transfer ownership is because the original author no longer has the time or interest in updating it or following through with the PEP process, or has fallen off the face of the 'net (i.e. is unreachable or not responding to email). A bad reason to transfer ownership is because you don't agree with the direction of the PEP. We try to build consensus around a PEP, but if that's not possible, you can always submit a competing PEP. If you are interested assuming ownership of a PEP, send a message asking to take over, addressed to both the original author and the PEP editor <peps(a)python.org>. If the original author doesn't respond to email in a timely manner, the PEP editor will make a unilateral decision (it's not like such decisions can be reversed. :). References and Footnotes [1] This historical record is available by the normal CVS commands for retrieving older revisions. For those without direct access to the CVS tree, you can browse the current and past PEP revisions via the SourceForge web site at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/python/nondist/peps/?cvsroot=… [2] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=305470 [3] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse [4] http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/ [5] The script referred to here is pep2html.py, which lives in the same directory in the CVS tree as the PEPs themselves. Try "pep2html.py --help" for details. The URL for viewing PEPs on the web is http://www.python.org/peps/ [6] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=305470 [7] PEP 9, Sample PEP Template http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0009.html Copyright This document has been placed in the public domain. Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil sentence-end-double-space: t fill-column: 70 End:

8 14

Surely "nullable" is a reasonable name?
by Larry Hastings 25 Apr '15

25 Apr '15

Argument Clinic "converters" specify how to convert an individual argument to the function you're defining. Although a converter could theoretically represent any sort of conversion, most of the time they directly represent types like "int" or "double" or "str". Because there's such variety in argument parsing, the converters are customizable with parameters. Many of these are common enough that Argument Clinic suggests some standard names. Examples: "zeroes=True" for strings and buffers means "permit internal \0 characters", and "bitwise=True" for unsigned integers means "copy the bits over, even if there's overflow/underflow, and even if the original is negative". A third example is "nullable=True", which means "also accept None for this parameter". This was originally intended for use with strings (compare the "s" and "z" format units for PyArg_ParseTuple), however it looks like we'll have a use for "nullable ints" in the ongoing Argument Clinic conversion work. Several people have said they found the name "nullable" surprising, suggesting I use another name like "allow_none" or "noneable". I, in turn, find their surprise surprising; "nullable" is a term long associated with exactly this concept. It's used in C# and SQL, and the term even has its own Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullable_type Most amusingly, Vala *used* to have an annotation called "(allow-none)", but they've broken it out into two annotations, "(nullable)" and "(optional)". http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2014/05/27/allow-none-is-dead-long-live-nullab… Before you say "the term 'nullable' will confuse end users", let me remind you: this is not user-facing. This is a parameter for an Argument Clinic converter, and will only ever be seen by CPython core developers. A group which I hope is not so easily confused. It's my contention that "nullable" is the correct name. But I've been asked to bring up the topic for discussion, to see if a consensus forms around this or around some other name. Let the bike-shedding begin, //arry/

13 29

libffi embedded in CPython
by Maciej Fijalkowski 25 Mar '15

25 Mar '15

After reading this http://bugs.python.org/issue23085 and remembering struggling having our own patches into cpython's libffi (but not into libffi itself), I wonder, is there any reason any more for libffi being included in CPython? Cheers, fijal

18 57

Update to PEP 11 to clarify garnering platform support
by Brett Cannon 27 Feb '15

27 Feb '15

Here is some proposed wording. Since it is more of a clarification of what it takes to garner support -- which is just a new section -- rather than a complete rewrite I'm including just the diff to make it easier to read the changes. *diff -r 49d18bb47ebc pep-0011.txt* *--- a/pep-0011.txt Wed May 14 11:18:22 2014 -0400* *+++ b/pep-0011.txt Fri May 16 13:48:30 2014 -0400* @@ -2,22 +2,21 @@ Title: Removing support for little used platforms Version: $Revision$ Last-Modified: $Date$ -Author: martin(a)v.loewis.de (Martin von Löwis) +Author: Martin von Löwis <martin(a)v.loewis.de>, + Brett Cannon <brett(a)python.org> Status: Active Type: Process Content-Type: text/x-rst Created: 07-Jul-2002 Post-History: 18-Aug-2007 + 16-May-2014 Abstract -------- -This PEP documents operating systems (platforms) which are not -supported in Python anymore. For some of these systems, -supporting code might be still part of Python, but will be removed -in a future release - unless somebody steps forward as a volunteer -to maintain this code. +This PEP documents how an operating system (platform) garners +support in Python as well as documenting past support. Rationale @@ -37,16 +36,53 @@ change to the Python source code will work on all supported platforms. -To reduce this risk, this PEP proposes a procedure to remove code -for platforms with no Python users. +To reduce this risk, this PEP specifies what is required for a +platform to be considered supported by Python as well as providing a +procedure to remove code for platforms with little or no Python +users. +Supporting platforms +-------------------- + +Gaining official platform support requires two things. First, a core +developer needs to volunteer to maintain platform-specific code. This +core developer can either already be a member of the Python +development team or be given contributor rights on the basis of +maintaining platform support (it is at the discretion of the Python +development team to decide if a person is ready to have such rights +even if it is just for supporting a specific platform). + +Second, a stable buildbot must be provided [2]_. This guarantees that +platform support will not be accidentally broken by a Python core +developer who does not have personal access to the platform. For a +buildbot to be considered stable it requires that the machine be +reliably up and functioning (but it is up to the Python core +developers to decide whether to promote a buildbot to being +considered stable). + +This policy does not disqualify supporting other platforms +indirectly. Patches which are not platform-specific but still done to +add platform support will be considered for inclusion. For example, +if platform-independent changes were necessary in the configure +script which was motivated to support a specific platform that would +be accepted. Patches which add platform-specific code such as the +name of a specific platform to the configure script will generally +not be accepted without the platform having official support. + +CPU architecture and compiler support are viewed in a similar manner +as platforms. For example, to consider the ARM architecture supported +a buildbot running on ARM would be required along with support from +the Python development team. In general it is not required to have +a CPU architecture run under every possible platform in order to be +considered supported. Unsupporting platforms ---------------------- -If a certain platform that currently has special code in it is -deemed to be without Python users, a note must be posted in this -PEP that this platform is no longer actively supported. This +If a certain platform that currently has special code in Python is +deemed to be without Python users or lacks proper support from the +Python development team and/or a buildbot, a note must be posted in +this PEP that this platform is no longer actively supported. This note must include: - the name of the system @@ -69,8 +105,8 @@ forward and offer maintenance. -Resupporting platforms ----------------------- +Re-supporting platforms +----------------------- If a user of a platform wants to see this platform supported again, he may volunteer to maintain the platform support. Such an @@ -101,7 +137,7 @@ release is made. Developers of extension modules will generally need to use the same Visual Studio release; they are concerned both with the availability of the versions they need to use, and with keeping -the zoo of versions small. The Python source tree will keep +the zoo of versions small. The Python source tree will keep unmaintained build files for older Visual Studio releases, for which patches will be accepted. Such build files will be removed from the source tree 3 years after the extended support for the compiler has @@ -223,6 +259,7 @@ ---------- .. [1] http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/ +.. [2] http://buildbot.python.org/3.x.stable/ Copyright ---------

3 4

ubuntu buildbot
by Benjamin Peterson 26 Feb '15

26 Feb '15

Hi David, I noticed you run the "Builder x86 Ubuntu Shared" buildbot. It seems it's running a very old version of Ubuntu. Is there any chance of getting that updated? Regards, Benjamin

2 4

PEP 481 - Migrate Some Supporting Repositories to Git and Github
by Donald Stufft 17 Jan '15

17 Jan '15

As promised in the "Move selected documentation repos to PSF BitBucket account?" thread I've written up a PEP for moving selected repositories from hg.python.org to Github. You can see this PEP online at: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0481/ I've also reproduced the PEP below for inline discussion. ----------------------- Abstract ======== This PEP proposes migrating to Git and Github for certain supporting repositories (such as the repository for Python Enhancement Proposals) in a way that is more accessible to new contributors, and easier to manage for core developers. This is offered as an alternative to PEP 474 which aims to achieve the same overall benefits but while continuing to use the Mercurial DVCS and without relying on a commerical entity. In particular this PEP proposes changes to the following repositories: * https://hg.python.org/devguide/ * https://hg.python.org/devinabox/ * https://hg.python.org/peps/ This PEP does not propose any changes to the core development workflow for CPython itself. Rationale ========= As PEP 474 mentions, there are currently a number of repositories hosted on hg.python.org which are not directly used for the development of CPython but instead are supporting or ancillary repositories. These supporting repositories do not typically have complex workflows or often branches at all other than the primary integration branch. This simplicity makes them very good targets for the "Pull Request" workflow that is commonly found on sites like Github. However where PEP 474 wants to continue to use Mercurial and wishes to use an OSS and self-hosted and therefore restricts itself to only those solutions this PEP expands the scope of that to include migrating to Git and using Github. The existing method of contributing to these repositories generally includes generating a patch and either uploading them to bugs.python.org or emailing them to peps(a)python.org. This process is unfriendly towards non-comitter contributors as well as making the process harder than it needs to be for comitters to accept the patches sent by users. In addition to the benefits in the pull request workflow itself, this style of workflow also enables non techincal contributors, especially those who do not know their way around the DVCS of choice, to contribute using the web based editor. On the committer side the Pull Requests enable them to tell, before merging, whether or not a particular Pull Request will break anything. It also enables them to do a simple "push button" merge which does not require them to check out the changes locally. Another such feature that is useful in particular for docs, is the ability to view a "prose" diff. This Github specific feature enables a committer to view a diff of the rendered output which will hide things like reformatting a paragraph and show you what the actual "meat" of the change actually is. Why Git? -------- Looking at the variety of DVCS which are available today it becomes fairly clear that git has gotten the vast mindshare of people who are currently using it. The Open Hub (Previously Ohloh) statistics [#openhub-stats]_ show that currently 37% of the repositories Open Hub is indexing is using git which is second only to SVN (which has 48%) while Mercurial has just 2% of the indexed repositories (beating only bazaar which has 1%). In additon to the Open Hub statistics a look at the top 100 projects on PyPI (ordered by total download counts) shows us that within the Python space itself there is a majority of projects using git: === ========= ========== ====== === ==== Git Mercurial Subversion Bazaar CVS None === ========= ========== ====== === ==== 62 22 7 4 1 1 === ========= ========== ====== === ==== Chosing a DVCS which has the larger mindshare will make it more likely that any particular person who has experience with DVCS at all will be able to meaningfully use the DVCS that we have chosen without having to learn a new tool. In addition to simply making it more likely that any individual will already know how to use git, the number of projects and people using it means that the resources for learning the tool are likely to be more fully fleshed out and when you run into problems the liklihood that someone else had that problem and posted a question and recieved an answer is also far likelier. Thirdly by using a more popular tool you also increase your options for tooling *around* the DVCS itself. Looking at the various options for hosting repositories it's extremely rare to find a hosting solution (whether OSS or commerical) that supports Mercurial but does not support Git, on the flip side there are a number of tools which support Git but do not support Mercurial. Therefore the popularity of git increases the flexibility of our options going into the future for what toolchain these projects use. Also by moving to the more popular DVCS we increase the likelhood that the knowledge that the person has learned in contributing to these support repositories will transfer to projects outside of the immediate CPython project such as to the larger Python community which is primarily using Git hosted on Github. In previous years there was concern about how well supported git was on Windows in comparison to Mercurial. However git has grown to support Windows as a first class citizen. In addition to that, for Windows users who are not well aquanted with the Windows command line there are GUI options as well. On a techincal level git and Mercurial are fairly similar, however the git branching model is signifcantly better than Mercurial "Named Branches" for non-comitter contributors. Mercurial does have a "Bookmarks" extension however this isn't quite as good as git's branching model. All bookmarks live in the same namespace so it requires individual users to ensure that they namespace the branchnames themselves lest the risk collision. It also is an extension which requires new users to first discover they need an extension at all and then figure out what they need to do in order to enable that extension. Since it is an extension it also means that in general support for them outside of Mercurial core is going to be less than 100% in comparison to git where the feature is built in and core to using git at all. Finally users who are not used to Mercurial are unlikely to discover bookmarks on their own, instead they will likely attempt to use Mercurial's "Named Branches" which, given the fact they live "forever", are not often what a project wants their contributors to use. Why Github? ----------- There are a number of software projects or web services which offer functionality similar to that of Github. These range from commerical web services such as a Bitbucket to self-hosted OSS solutions such as Kallithea or Gitlab. This PEP proposes that we move these repositories to Github. There are two primary reasons for selecting Github: Popularity and Quality/Polish. Github is currently the most popular hosted repository hosting according to Alexa where it currently has a global rank of 121. Much like for Git itself by choosing the most popular tool we gain benefits in increasing the likelhood that a new contributor will have already experienced the toolchain, the quality and availablity of the help, more and better tooling being built around it, and the knowledge transfer to other projects. A look again at the top 100 projects by download counts on PyPI shows the following hosting locations: ====== ========= =========== ========= =========== ========== GitHub BitBucket Google Code Launchpad SourceForge Other/Self ====== ========= =========== ========= =========== ========== 62 18 6 4 3 7 ====== ========= =========== ========= =========== ========== In addition to all of those reasons, Github also has the benefit that while many of the options have similar features when you look at them in a feature matrix the Github version of each of those features tend to work better and be far more polished. This is hard to quantify objectively however it is a fairly common sentiment if you go around and ask people who are using these services often. Finally a reason to choose a web service at all over something that is self-hosted is to be able to more efficiently use volunteer time and donated resources. Every additional service hosted on the PSF infrastruture by the PSF infrastructure team further spreads out the amount of time that the volunteers on that team have to spend and uses some chunk of resources that could potentionally be used for something where there is no free or affordable hosted solution available. One concern that people do have with using a hosted service is that there is a lack of control and that at some point in the future the service may no longer be suitable. It is the opinion of this PEP that Github does not currently and has not in the past engaged in any attempts to lock people into their platform and that if at some point in the future Github is no longer suitable for one reason or another than at that point we can look at migrating away from Github onto a different solution. In other words, we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. Example: Scientific Python -------------------------- One of the key ideas behind the move to both git and Github is that a feature of a DVCS, the repository hosting, and the workflow used is the social network and size of the community using said tools. We can see this is true by looking at an example from a sub-community of the Python community: The Scientific Python community. They have already migrated most of the key pieces of the SciPy stack onto Github using the Pull Request based workflow starting with IPython and as more projects moved over it became a natural default for new projects. They claim to have seen a great benefit from this move, where it enables casual contributors to easily move between different projects within their sub-community without having to learn a special, bespoke workflow and a different toolchain for each project. They've found that when people can use their limited time on actually contributing instead of learning the different tools and workflows that not only do they contribute more to one project, that they also expand out and contribute to other projects. This move is also attributed to making it commonplace for members of that community to go so far as publishing their research and educational materials on Github as well. This showcases the real power behind moving to a highly popular toolchain and workflow, as each variance introduces yet another hurdle for new and casual contributors to get past and it makes the time spent learning that workflow less reusable with other projects. Migration ========= Through the use of hg-git [#hg-git]_ we can easily convert a Mercurial repository to a Git repository by simply pushing the Mercurial repository to the Git repository. People who wish to continue to use Mercurual locally can then use hg-git going into the future using the new Github URL, however they will need to re-clone their repositories as using Git as the server seems to trigger a one time change of the changeset ids. As none of the selected repositories have any tags, branches, or bookmarks other than the ``default`` branch the migration will simply map the ``default`` branch in Mercurial to the ``master`` branch in git. In addition since none of the selected projects have any great need of a complex bug tracker, they will also migrate their issue handling to using the GitHub issues. In addition to the migration of the repository hosting itself there are a number of locations for each particular repository which will require updating. The bulk of these will simply be changing commands from the hg equivilant to the git equivilant. In particular this will include: * Updating www.python.org to generate PEPs using a git clone and link to Github. * Updating docs.python.org to pull from Github instead of hg.python.org for the devguide. * Enabling the ability to send an email to python-checkins(a)python.org for each push. * Enabling the ability to send an IRC message to #python-dev on Freenode for each push. * Migrate any issues for these projects to their respective bug tracker on Github. This will restore these repositories to similar functionality as they currently have. In addition to this the migration will also include enabling testing for each pull request using Travis CI [#travisci]_ where possible to ensure that a new PR does not break the ability to render the documentation or PEPs. User Access =========== Moving to Github would involve adding an additional user account that will need to be managed, however it also offers finer grained control, allowing the ability to grant someone access to only one particular repository instead of the coarser grained ACLs available on hg.python.org. References ========== .. [#openhub-stats] `Open Hub Statistics <https://www.openhub.net/repositories/compare>` .. [#hg-git] `hg-git <https://hg-git.github.io/>` .. [#travisci] `Travis CI <https://travis-ci.org/>` --- Donald Stufft PGP: 7C6B 7C5D 5E2B 6356 A926 F04F 6E3C BCE9 3372 DCFA

32 140

datetime nanosecond support (ctd?)
by Matthieu Bec 08 Jan '15

08 Jan '15

newbie first post on this list, if what follows is of context ... Hi all, I'm struggling with issue per the subject, read different threads and issue http://bugs.python.org/issue15443 that started 2012 still opened as of today. Isn't there a legitimate case for nanosecond support? it's all over the place in 'struct timespec' and maybe wrongly I always found python and C were best neighbors. That's for the notional aspect. More practically, aren't we close enough yet with current hardware, PTP and the likes, this deserves more consideration? Maybe this has been mentioned before but the limiting factor isn't just getting nanoseconds, but anything sub-microseconds wont work with the current format. OpcUA that I was looking right now has 10-th us resolution, so really cares about 100ns, but the datetime 1us simply wont cut it. Regards, Matthieu

16 30

My thinking about the development process
by Brett Cannon 08 Jan '15

08 Jan '15

This is a bit long as I espoused as if this was a blog post to try and give background info on my thinking, etc. The TL;DR folks should start at the "Ideal Scenario" section and read to the end. P.S.: This is in Markdown and I have put it up at https://gist.github.com/brettcannon/a9c9a5989dc383ed73b4 if you want a nicer formatted version for reading. # History lesson Since I signed up for the python-dev mailing list way back in June 2002, there seems to be a cycle where we as a group come to a realization that our current software development process has not kept up with modern practices and could stand for an update. For me this was first shown when we moved from SourceForge to our own infrastructure, then again when we moved from Subversion to Mercurial (I led both of these initiatives, so it's somewhat a tradition/curse I find myself in this position yet again). And so we again find ourselves at the point of realizing that we are not keeping up with current practices and thus need to evaluate how we can improve our situation. # Where we are now Now it should be realized that we have to sets of users of our development process: contributors and core developers (the latter whom can play both roles). If you take a rough outline of our current, recommended process it goes something like this: 1. Contributor clones a repository from hg.python.org 2. Contributor makes desired changes 3. Contributor generates a patch 4. Contributor creates account on bugs.python.org and signs the [contributor agreement](https://www.python.org/psf/contrib/contrib-form/) 4. Contributor creates an issue on bugs.python.org (if one does not already exist) and uploads a patch 5. Core developer evaluates patch, possibly leaving comments through our [custom version of Rietveld](http://bugs.python.org/review/) 6. Contributor revises patch based on feedback and uploads new patch 7. Core developer downloads patch and applies it to a clean clone 8. Core developer runs the tests 9. Core developer does one last `hg pull -u` and then commits the changes to various branches I think we can all agree it works to some extent, but isn't exactly smooth. There are multiple steps in there -- in full or partially -- that can be automated. There is room to improve everyone's lives. And we can't forget the people who help keep all of this running as well. There are those that manage the SSH keys, the issue tracker, the review tool, hg.python.org, and the email system that let's use know when stuff happens on any of these other systems. The impact on them needs to also be considered. ## Contributors I see two scenarios for contributors to optimize for. There's the simple spelling mistake patches and then there's the code change patches. The former is the kind of thing that you can do in a browser without much effort and should be a no-brainer commit/reject decision for a core developer. This is what the GitHub/Bitbucket camps have been promoting their solution for solving while leaving the cpython repo alone. Unfortunately the bulk of our documentation is in the Doc/ directory of cpython. While it's nice to think about moving the devguide, peps, and even breaking out the tutorial to repos hosting on Bitbucket/GitHub, everything else is in Doc/ (language reference, howtos, stdlib, C API, etc.). So unless we want to completely break all of Doc/ out of the cpython repo and have core developers willing to edit two separate repos when making changes that impact code **and** docs, moving only a subset of docs feels like a band-aid solution that ignores the big, white elephant in the room: the cpython repo, where a bulk of patches are targeting. For the code change patches, contributors need an easy way to get a hold of the code and get their changes to the core developers. After that it's things like letting contributors knowing that their patch doesn't apply cleanly, doesn't pass tests, etc. As of right now getting the patch into the issue tracker is a bit manual but nothing crazy. The real issue in this scenario is core developer response time. ## Core developers There is a finite amount of time that core developers get to contribute to Python and it fluctuates greatly. This means that if a process can be found which allows core developers to spend less time doing mechanical work and more time doing things that can't be automated -- namely code reviews -- then the throughput of patches being accepted/rejected will increase. This also impacts any increased patch submission rate that comes from improving the situation for contributors because if the throughput doesn't change then there will simply be more patches sitting in the issue tracker and that doesn't benefit anyone. # My ideal scenario If I had an infinite amount of resources (money, volunteers, time, etc.), this would be my ideal scenario: 1. Contributor gets code from wherever; easiest to just say "fork on GitHub or Bitbucket" as they would be official mirrors of hg.python.org and are updated after every commit, but could clone hg.python.org/cpython if they wanted 2. Contributor makes edits; if they cloned on Bitbucket or GitHub then they have browser edit access already 3. Contributor creates an account at bugs.python.org and signs the CLA 3. The contributor creates an issue at bugs.python.org (probably the one piece of infrastructure we all agree is better than the other options, although its workflow could use an update) 4. If the contributor used Bitbucket or GitHub, they send a pull request with the issue # in the PR message 5. bugs.python.org notices the PR, grabs a patch for it, and puts it on bugs.python.org for code review 6. CI runs on the patch based on what Python versions are specified in the issue tracker, letting everyone know if it applied cleanly, passed tests on the OSs that would be affected, and also got a test coverage report 7. Core developer does a code review 8. Contributor updates their code based on the code review and the updated patch gets pulled by bugs.python.org automatically and CI runs again 9. Once the patch is acceptable and assuming the patch applies cleanly to all versions to commit to, the core developer clicks a "Commit" button, fills in a commit message and NEWS entry, and everything gets committed (if the patch can't apply cleanly then the core developer does it the old-fashion way, or maybe auto-generate a new PR which can be manually touched up so it does apply cleanly?) Basically the ideal scenario lets contributors use whatever tools and platforms that they want and provides as much automated support as possible to make sure their code is tip-top before and during code review while core developers can review and commit patches so easily that they can do their job from a beach with a tablet and some WiFi. ## Where the current proposed solutions seem to fall short ### GitHub/Bitbucket Basically GitHub/Bitbucket is a win for contributors but doesn't buy core developers that much. GitHub/Bitbucket gives contributors the easy cloning, drive-by patches, CI, and PRs. Core developers get a code review tool -- I'm counting Rietveld as deprecated after Guido's comments about the code's maintenance issues -- and push-button commits **only for single branch changes**. But for any patch that crosses branches we don't really gain anything. At best core developers tell a contributor "please send your PR against 3.4", push-button merge it, update a local clone, merge from 3.4 to default, do the usual stuff, commit, and then push; that still keeps me off the beach, though, so that doesn't get us the whole way. You could force people to submit two PRs, but I don't see that flying. Maybe some tool could be written that automatically handles the merge/commit across branches once the initial PR is in? Or automatically create a PR that core developers can touch up as necessary and then accept that as well? Regardless, some solution is necessary to handle branch-crossing PRs. As for GitHub vs. Bitbucket, I personally don't care. I like GitHub's interface more, but that's personal taste. I like hg more than git, but that's also personal taste (and I consider a transition from hg to git a hassle but not a deal-breaker but also not a win). It is unfortunate, though, that under this scenario we would have to choose only one platform. It's also unfortunate both are closed-source, but that's not a deal-breaker, just a knock against if the decision is close. ### Our own infrastructure The shortcoming here is the need for developers, developers, developers! Everything outlined in the ideal scenario is totally doable on our own infrastructure with enough code and time (donated/paid-for infrastructure shouldn't be an issue). But historically that code and time has not materialized. Our code review tool is a fork that probably should be replaced as only Martin von Löwis can maintain it. Basically Ezio Melotti maintains the issue tracker's code. We don't exactly have a ton of people constantly going "I'm so bored because everything for Python's development infrastructure gets sorted so quickly!" A perfect example is that R. David Murray came up with a nice update for our workflow after PyCon but then ran out of time after mostly defining it and nothing ever became of it (maybe we can rectify that at PyCon?). Eric Snow has pointed out how he has written similar code for pulling PRs from I think GitHub to another code review tool, but that doesn't magically make it work in our infrastructure or get someone to write it and help maintain it (no offense, Eric). IOW our infrastructure can do anything, but it can't run on hopes and dreams. Commitments from many people to making this happen by a certain deadline will be needed so as to not allow it to drag on forever. People would also have to commit to continued maintenance to make this viable long-term. # Next steps I'm thinking first draft PEPs by February 1 to know who's all-in (8 weeks away), all details worked out in final PEPs and whatever is required to prove to me it will work by the PyCon language summit (4 months away). I make a decision by May 1, and then implementation aims to be done by the time 3.5.0 is cut so we can switch over shortly thereafter (9 months away). Sound like a reasonable timeline?

15 45

python 2.7.9 regression in argparse?
by anatoly techtonik 06 Jan '15

06 Jan '15

https://github.com/nickstenning/honcho/pull/121 -- anatoly t.

5 4

More compact dictionaries with faster iteration
by Raymond Hettinger 03 Jan '15

03 Jan '15

The current memory layout for dictionaries is unnecessarily inefficient. It has a sparse table of 24-byte entries containing the hash value, key pointer, and value pointer. Instead, the 24-byte entries should be stored in a dense table referenced by a sparse table of indices. For example, the dictionary: d = {'timmy': 'red', 'barry': 'green', 'guido': 'blue'} is currently stored as: entries = [['--', '--', '--'], [-8522787127447073495, 'barry', 'green'], ['--', '--', '--'], ['--', '--', '--'], ['--', '--', '--'], [-9092791511155847987, 'timmy', 'red'], ['--', '--', '--'], [-6480567542315338377, 'guido', 'blue']] Instead, the data should be organized as follows: indices = [None, 1, None, None, None, 0, None, 2] entries = [[-9092791511155847987, 'timmy', 'red'], [-8522787127447073495, 'barry', 'green'], [-6480567542315338377, 'guido', 'blue']] Only the data layout needs to change. The hash table algorithms would stay the same. All of the current optimizations would be kept, including key-sharing dicts and custom lookup functions for string-only dicts. There is no change to the hash functions, the table search order, or collision statistics. The memory savings are significant (from 30% to 95% compression depending on the how full the table is). Small dicts (size 0, 1, or 2) get the most benefit. For a sparse table of size t with n entries, the sizes are: curr_size = 24 * t new_size = 24 * n + sizeof(index) * t In the above timmy/barry/guido example, the current size is 192 bytes (eight 24-byte entries) and the new size is 80 bytes (three 24-byte entries plus eight 1-byte indices). That gives 58% compression. Note, the sizeof(index) can be as small as a single byte for small dicts, two bytes for bigger dicts and up to sizeof(Py_ssize_t) for huge dict. In addition to space savings, the new memory layout makes iteration faster. Currently, keys(), values, and items() loop over the sparse table, skipping-over free slots in the hash table. Now, keys/values/items can loop directly over the dense table, using fewer memory accesses. Another benefit is that resizing is faster and touches fewer pieces of memory. Currently, every hash/key/value entry is moved or copied during a resize. In the new layout, only the indices are updated. For the most part, the hash/key/value entries never move (except for an occasional swap to fill a hole left by a deletion). With the reduced memory footprint, we can also expect better cache utilization. For those wanting to experiment with the design, there is a pure Python proof-of-concept here: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/578375 YMMV: Keep in mind that the above size statics assume a build with 64-bit Py_ssize_t and 64-bit pointers. The space savings percentages are a bit different on other builds. Also, note that in many applications, the size of the data dominates the size of the container (i.e. the weight of a bucket of water is mostly the water, not the bucket). Raymond

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Python-Dev December 2014