Mailman 3 October 2019 - Python-Dev

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:

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Boundaries between numbers and identifiers
by Serhiy Storchaka 15 Apr '21

15 Apr '21

In Python 2.5 `0or[]` was accepted by the Python parser. It became an error in 2.6 because "0o" became recognizing as an incomplete octal number. `1or[]` still is accepted. On other hand, `1if 2else 3` is accepted despites the fact that "2e" can be recognized as an incomplete floating point number. In this case the tokenizer pushes "e" back and returns "2". Shouldn't it do the same with "0o"? It is possible to make `0or[]` be parseable again. Python implementation is able to tokenize this example: $ echo '0or[]' | ./python -m tokenize 1,0-1,1: NUMBER '0' 1,1-1,3: NAME 'or' 1,3-1,4: OP '[' 1,4-1,5: OP ']' 1,5-1,6: NEWLINE '\n' 2,0-2,0: ENDMARKER '' On other hand, all these examples look weird. There is an assymmetry: `1or 2` is a valid syntax, but `1 or2` is not. It is hard to recognize visually the boundary between a number and the following identifier or keyword, especially if numbers can contain letters ("b", "e", "j", "o", "x") and underscores, and identifiers can contain digits. On both sides of the boundary can be letters, digits, and underscores. I propose to change the Python syntax by adding a requirement that there should be a whitespace or delimiter between a numeric literal and the following keyword.

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The Python 2 death march
by Benjamin Peterson 16 Apr '20

16 Apr '20

Hi all, It's finally time to schedule the last releases in Python 2's life. There will be two more releases of Python 2.7: Python 2.7.17 and Python 2.7.18. Python 2.7.17 release candidate 1 will happen on October 5th followed by the final release on October 19th. I'm going to time Python 2.7.18 to coincide with PyCon 2020 in April, so attendees can enjoy some collective catharsis. We'll still say January 1st is the official EOL date. Thanks to Sumana Harihareswara, there's now a FAQ about the Python 2 sunset on the website: https://www.python.org/doc/sunset-python-2/ Regards, Benjamin

24 38

About "python-porting" mail list
by Facundo Batista 20 Jan '20

20 Jan '20

Hello! This list (which I co-admin, with Georg) is getting less and less traffic as months pass by. See: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-porting/ The interwebs has been collecting ton of resources about porting py2 to 3 during these years. Any not-yet-answered question surely can be done in a list with more participants. Can we kill this list? Thanks! Regards, -- . Facundo Blog: http://www.taniquetil.com.ar/plog/ PyAr: http://www.python.org.ar/ Twitter: @facundobatista

4 7

Adding a toml module to the standard lib?
by Bastian Venthur 16 Dec '19

16 Dec '19

Hi, I'd like to discuss the idea to add a module to parse TOML [toml-lang] to Python's standard library. PEP-0518 -- Specifying Minimum Build System Requirements for Python Projects [pep] suggests to store build system dependencies in `pyproject.toml`, yet Python itself does not support this format. Various packaging related projects like pip and pipenv already support PEP-0518 and vendored one of the existing TOML libraries in order to read `pyproject.toml` files. Besides that, TOML seems a better alternative to .cfg/.ini, .json -- both of which are already supported by Python's standard lib and parsing/dumping TOML properly is tricky enough to solve it properly [requirements]. There are a couple of TOML implementations out there [toml, pytoml, tomlkit] and one would have to find out which one to prefer and migrate into the stdlib. If the result of this discussion is leaning towards adding TOML, I'd volunteer to do it. This includes: coordinating with the maintainer of the chosen library, writing the PEP (hopefully with some help) and maintain the module for at least two years. Cheers, Bastian [toml-lang]: https://github.com/toml-lang/toml [pep]: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518 [pip]: https://github.com/pypa/pip [pipenv]: https://github.com/pypa/pipenv [toml]: https://github.com/uiri/toml [pytoml]: https://github.com/avakar/pytoml [tomlkit]: https://github.com/sdispater/tomlkit [requirements]: https://devguide.python.org/stdlibchanges/#requirements -- Dr. Bastian Venthur http://venthur.de Debian Developer venthur at debian org

8 9

Fun with Python 3.8 and Qt
by Kacvinsky, Tom 06 Dec '19

06 Dec '19

Today I discovered the this struct typedef struct{ const char* name; int basicsize; int itemsize; unsigned int flags; PyType_Slot *slots; /* terminated by slot==0. */ } PyType_Spec; with "PyTypeSlot *slots" being on line 190 of object.h causes a problem when compiled with code that brings in Qt. Qt has macro definitions of slots. With a cursory preprocessing of the file I was working with, using the handy gcc options -dM -E, I found that slots was defined to nothing #define slots and hence caused problems when object.h was brought into the mix. I will try to make a simple reproducer tomorrow. I know this probably could be solved by header file inclusion re-ordering, or in some cases #undef'ing slots before including Python.h, but I also thought the Python dev team would like to know about this issue. Tom

3 2

Implementation of PEP-0604
by Philippe Prados 17 Nov '19

17 Nov '19

To implement a full version of PEP604 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0604/>, I analyze the typing module, started with _GenericAlias. 1) I must rewrite : - def _type_check(arg, msg, is_argument=True) - def _type_repr(obj) - def _collect_type_vars(types) - def _subs_tvars(tp, tvars, subs) - def _check_generic(cls, parameters) - def _remove_dups_flatten(parameters) - def _tp_cache(func) - class _Final - class _Immutable - class _SpecialForm(_Final, _Immutable, _root=True) - class ForwardRef(_Final, _root=True) - class TypeVar(_Final, _Immutable, _root=True) - def _is_dunder(attr) - class _GenericAlias(_Final, _root=True) - class Generic - class _TypingEmpty - class _TypingEllipsis - def _get_protocol_attrs(cls) - def _is_callable_members_only(cls) - def _allow_reckless_class_cheks() - class _ProtocolMeta(ABCMeta) - class Protocol(Generic, metaclass=_ProtocolMeta) 2) The function _tp_cache use functools.lru_cache() def _tp_cache(func): cached = functools.lru_cache()(func) it's not reasonable to move the lru_cache() in the core 3) The method TypeVar.__init__() use: def_mod = sys._getframe(1).f_globals['__name__'] # for pickling 4) The method def _allow_reckless_class_cheks() use: return sys._getframe(3).f_globals['__name__'] in ['abc', 'functools'] 5) The method Protocol.__init_subclass___proto_hook() use: if (isinstance(annotations, collections.abc.Mapping) it's not reasonable to move the Mapping type in the core It's not enough to move the typing classes, I must move functools.lru_cache() and dependencies, collections.abs.Mapping and dependencies, and track the frame level. *It's too big for me.* May be, the approach with only PEP 563 is enough. from __future__ import annotations a:int|str=3 This new syntax is only usable in annotations. Without runtime evaluation and without modifying issubclass() and isinstance() may be acceptable. Only the mypy (and others tools like this) must be updated. Philippe

6 9

Do not fallback to __trunc__ when convert to int
by Serhiy Storchaka 04 Nov '19

04 Nov '19

Currently __trunc__ is used for two purposes: * In math.trunc() which just calls __trunc__. * In int() and PyNumber_Long() as a fallback if neither __int__ nor __index__ are implemented. Unlike to __int__ and __index__ there is not a slot corresponding to __trunc__. So using it is slower than using __int__ or __index__. float and Decimal implement __int__ and __trunc__ by the same code. Only Fraction implements __trunc__ but not __int__. I propose to deprecate the falling back to __trunc__ for converting to int and remove it in future. Fraction should implement __int__. We cannot use __trunc__ for setting the nb_int slot because it can return non-int.

6 7

Accepting PEP 602 -- Annual Release Cycle for Python
by Brett Cannon 02 Nov '19

02 Nov '19

On behalf of the steering council I am happy to announce that as BDFL-Delegate I am accepting PEP 602 to move us to an annual release schedule (gated on a planned update; see below). The steering council thinks that having a consistent schedule every year when we hit beta, RC, and final it will help the community: * Know when to start testing the beta to provide feedback * Known when the expect the RC so the community can prepare their projects for the final release * Know when the final release will occur to coordinate their own releases (if necessary) when the final release of Python occurs * Allow core developers to more easily plan their work to make sure work lands in the release they are targeting * Make sure that core developers and the community have a shorter amount of time to wait for new features to be released The acceptance is gated on Łukasz updating PEP 602 to reflect a planned shift in scheduling (he's been busy with a release of Black): * 3 months for betas instead of 2 * 2 months for RCs instead of 1 This was discussed on https://discuss.python.org in order to give the community enough time to provide feedback in the betas while having enough time to thoroughly test the RC and to prep for the final release so the delay from Python's final release to any new project releases is minimal. It should also fit into the release schedule of Linux distributions like Fedora better than previously proposed so the distributions can test the RC when they start preparing for their own October releases. If this turns out to be a mistake after we try it out for Python 3.9 we can then discuss going back to longer betas and shorter RCs for the release after that. This will not change when feature development is cut off relative to PyCon US nor the core dev sprints happening just before the final release or the alpha of the next version. To help people who cannot upgrade on an annual cycle, do note that: * PEP 602 now says that deprecations will last two releases which is two years instead of the current 18 months * Now that the stable ABI has been cleaned, extension modules should feel more comfortable targeting the stable ABI which should make supporting newer versions of Python much easier As part of the shift to a 2 year deprecation time frame I will be restarting discussions around PEP 387 as BDFL-Delegate so we can have a more clear deprecation and backwards-compatibility policy as well for those that find an annual cycle too fast which will be updated to reflect this two year time frame (head's up, Benjamin 😉). Thanks to Łukasz, Nick, and Steve for PEPs 602, 605, and 607 and everyone else who provided feedback on those PEPs!

8 15

EnHackathon 2019 - seeking core dev support
by Lewis Gaul 02 Nov '19

02 Nov '19

Hi all, In early November this year I'll be leading the first ever Python 'EnHackathon' at the Ensoft Cisco office - we anticipate having ~10 first-time contributors, all with experience writing C and/or Python (and training in both). We each have up to 5 days (per year) to contribute, with my intention being to focus on contributing to CPython. We will be blogging about our experience (probably using GitHub pages) - I'll send out the URL when it's been set up. Having spoken to people about this at PyCon UK this year and emailed on the core-mentorship mailing list, I'm posting here looking for any core devs who would be happy to provide us with some guidance. I'm wary of PR reviews being a blocker, and not wanting my co-contributors to feel disheartened by issues they're working on not reaching a resolution. We're open to working on almost any area of CPython, although particular areas of interest/familiarity might be: CPython core, re, unittest, subprocess, asyncio, ctypes, typing. There would be scope for us to work in small teams to work on more substantial issues if that is seen as a useful way to contribute, otherwise we can start with some of the easier issues on bpo. Would anyone here be willing to offer some support to help us reach our full potential? Please don't hesitate to contact me if you're interested in any way, or if you have any advice. If this year is a success there's a high probability we would look to do a similar thing in future years (with the experience from this year already in the bag)! Thanks, Lewis

4 6

Python-Dev October 2019