Mailman 3 December 2020 - Python-Dev

pip 20.3 release (new resolver as default)
by Sumana Harihareswara 13 Dec '20

13 Dec '20

On behalf of the PyPA and the pip team, I am pleased to announce that we have just released pip 20.3, a new version of pip. You can install it by running `python -m pip install --upgrade pip`. This is an important and disruptive release -- we [explained why in a blog post last year](https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2019/12/moss-czi-support-pip.html). We even made [a video about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GQCBBsuNU). ## Highlights * **DISRUPTION**: Switch to the new dependency resolver by default. (#9019) Watch out for changes in handling editable installs, constraints files, and more: https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide/#changes-to-the-pip-dependency-res… * **DEPRECATION**: Deprecate support for Python 3.5 (to be removed in pip 21.0) (#8181) * **DEPRECATION**: pip freeze will stop filtering the pip, setuptools, distribute and wheel packages from pip freeze output in a future version. To keep the previous behavior, users should use the new `--exclude` option. (#4256) * Substantial improvements in new resolver for performance, output and error messages, avoiding infinite loops, and support for constraints files. * Support for PEP 600: Future ‘manylinux’ Platform Tags for Portable Linux Built Distributions. (#9077) * Documentation improvements: Resolver migration guide, quickstart guide, and new documentation theme. * Add support for MacOS Big Sur compatibility tags. (#9138) The new resolver is now *on by default*. It is significantly stricter and more consistent when it receives incompatible instructions, and reduces support for certain kinds of constraints files, so some workarounds and workflows may break. Please see [our guide on how to test and migrate, and how to report issues](https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide/#changes-to-the-pip-dependency-resolver-in-20-3-2020). You can use the deprecated (old) resolver, using the flag `--use-deprecated=legacy-resolver`, until we remove it in the pip 21.0 release in January 2021. You can find more details (including deprecations and removals) [in the changelog](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/news/). ## User experience Command-line output for this version of pip, and documentation to help with errors, is significantly better, because you worked with our experts to test and improve it. [Contribute to our user experience work: sign up to become a member of the UX Studies group](https://bit.ly/pip-ux-studies) (after you join, we'll notify you about future UX surveys and interviews). ## What to expect in 20.1 We aim to release pip 20.1 in January 2021, per our [usual release cadence](https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/release-process/#release-cadence). You can expect: * Removal of [Python 2.7](https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/release-process/#python-2-support) and 3.5 support * Further improvements in the new resolver * Removal of legacy resolver support ## Thanks As with all pip releases, a significant amount of the work was contributed by pip's user community. Huge thanks to all who have contributed, whether through code, documentation, issue reports and/or discussion. Your help keeps pip improving, and is hugely appreciated. Specific thanks go to Mozilla (through its [Mozilla Open Source Support](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/moss/) Awards) and to the [Chan Zuckerberg Initiative](https://chanzuckerberg.com/eoss/) DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, for their funding that enabled substantial work on the new resolver. That funding went to [Simply Secure](https://simplysecure.org/) (specifically Georgia Bullen, Bernard Tyers, Nicole Harris, Ngọc Triệu, and Karissa McKelvey), [Changeset Consulting](https://changeset.nyc/) (Sumana Harihareswara), [Atos](https://www.atos.net) (Paul F. Moore), [Tzu-ping Chung](https://uranusjr.com), [Pradyun Gedam](https://pradyunsg.me/), and Ilan Schnell. Thanks also to Ernest W. Durbin III at the Python Software Foundation for liaising with the project. -Sumana Harihareswara, pip project manager

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SC 2020 recommendation for PEP 634
by Brett Cannon 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

After much deliberation, the 2020 SC will be making a recommendation to the 2021 SC to accept PEP 634 (although this was not a unanimous decision). This is in no way a binding recommendation to the 2021 SC (even if a majority of current council members get re-elected), but we felt we should pass on our thoughts to the next council as we have been discussing pattern matching for a few months at this point and we promised we would make some decision to the PEP authors.

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Summary of Python tracker Issues
by Python tracker 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

ACTIVITY SUMMARY (2020-12-04 - 2020-12-11) Python tracker at https://bugs.python.org/ To view or respond to any of the issues listed below, click on the issue. Do NOT respond to this message. Issues counts and deltas: open 7567 ( +6) closed 46791 (+46) total 54358 (+52) Open issues with patches: 3047 Issues opened (43) ================== #39707: Abstract property setter/deleter implementation not enforced, https://bugs.python.org/issue39707 reopened by josh.r #39825: EXT_SUFFIX inconsistent between sysconfig and distutils.syscon https://bugs.python.org/issue39825 reopened by vstinner #42456: Logical Error https://bugs.python.org/issue42456 reopened by Kshitish #42571: [docs] add links to Glossary#parameter in libraries https://bugs.python.org/issue42571 opened by fredg1 #42572: Better path handling with argparse https://bugs.python.org/issue42572 opened by ascola #42575: Suggest to add an LinkedList data structure to python https://bugs.python.org/issue42575 opened by SamUnimelb #42577: Unhelpful syntax error when expression spans multiple lines https://bugs.python.org/issue42577 opened by lazka #42578: Add tip when encountering UnicodeDecode/EncodeError in open() https://bugs.python.org/issue42578 opened by wyz23x2 #42580: ctypes.util.find_library("libc") fails https://bugs.python.org/issue42580 opened by doko #42581: Docs site redirection doesn't work for 3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42581 opened by kaxing #42584: Upgrade macOS and Windows installers to use SQLite 3.34.0 https://bugs.python.org/issue42584 opened by erlendaasland #42585: Segmentation fault on Linux with multiprocess queue https://bugs.python.org/issue42585 opened by julien.stegle #42586: unittest.mock.Mock spec can't be array/ndarray in Python 3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42586 opened by valeriupredoi #42587: memoryview rely on _Bool undefined behavior (test_buffer fails https://bugs.python.org/issue42587 opened by vstinner #42588: Improvements to graphlib.TopologicalSorter.static_order() docu https://bugs.python.org/issue42588 opened by bluetech #42589: doc: Wrong "from" keyword link in Exceptions doc https://bugs.python.org/issue42589 opened by iritkatriel #42590: Something like Rust's std::sync::Mutex – combining a mutex p https://bugs.python.org/issue42590 opened by jstasiak #42591: Method Py_FrozenMain missing in libpython3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42591 opened by chba #42594: Provide a way to skip magic-number search in ZipFile(mode='a') https://bugs.python.org/issue42594 opened by Bart Robinson #42596: aarch64 Fedora Rawhide LTO + PGO 3.8 fails to build Python: /u https://bugs.python.org/issue42596 opened by vstinner #42597: Improve documentation of locals() w.r.t. "free variables" vs. https://bugs.python.org/issue42597 opened by Dominik V. #42598: Some configure checks rely on implicit function declaration https://bugs.python.org/issue42598 opened by jmr #42600: Cancelling tasks waiting for asyncio.Conditions crashes w/ Run https://bugs.python.org/issue42600 opened by hynek #42601: [doc] add more examples and additional explanation to re.sub https://bugs.python.org/issue42601 opened by harvastum #42602: seekable() returns True on pipe objects in Windows https://bugs.python.org/issue42602 opened by nedsociety #42603: Tkinter: pkg-config is not used to get location of tcl and tk https://bugs.python.org/issue42603 opened by m000 #42604: EXT_SUFFIX too short on FreeBSD and AIX https://bugs.python.org/issue42604 opened by mattip #42605: dir_util.copy_tree crashes if folder it previously created is https://bugs.python.org/issue42605 opened by vlasenkoalexey #42606: Support POSIX atomicity guarantee of O_APPEND on Windows https://bugs.python.org/issue42606 opened by izbyshev #42608: Installation failed from source code on Debian ([307/416] test https://bugs.python.org/issue42608 opened by alimp5 #42609: Eval with too high string multiplication crashes newer Python https://bugs.python.org/issue42609 opened by Erik-Lamers1 #42610: Get the type from a variable https://bugs.python.org/issue42610 opened by wlf100220 #42611: PEP 594 https://bugs.python.org/issue42611 opened by aeros #42612: Software Designer https://bugs.python.org/issue42612 opened by deepanshugarg09 #42613: freeze.py doesn't support sys.platlibdir different than lib no https://bugs.python.org/issue42613 opened by vstinner #42614: Pathlib does not support a Cyrillic character 'й' https://bugs.python.org/issue42614 opened by hidr0.frbg #42615: Redundant jump instructions due to deleted unreachable bytecod https://bugs.python.org/issue42615 opened by OmG #42616: C Extensions on Darwin that link against libpython are likely https://bugs.python.org/issue42616 opened by froody #42617: Enhancement request for PyType_FromSpecWIthBases add option f https://bugs.python.org/issue42617 opened by Thrameos #42618: Enhancement request for importing stacktraces from foreign sou https://bugs.python.org/issue42618 opened by Thrameos #42619: python 3.9.1 failed to create .so files as universal2 (arm64, https://bugs.python.org/issue42619 opened by xz_sophos #42620: documentation on `getsockname()` wrong for AF_INET6 https://bugs.python.org/issue42620 opened by vanrein #42622: Add support to add existing parser to ArgumentParser.subparser https://bugs.python.org/issue42622 opened by borkivskyi Most recent 15 issues with no replies (15) ========================================== #42622: Add support to add existing parser to ArgumentParser.subparser https://bugs.python.org/issue42622 #42618: Enhancement request for importing stacktraces from foreign sou https://bugs.python.org/issue42618 #42617: Enhancement request for PyType_FromSpecWIthBases add option f https://bugs.python.org/issue42617 #42615: Redundant jump instructions due to deleted unreachable bytecod https://bugs.python.org/issue42615 #42613: freeze.py doesn't support sys.platlibdir different than lib no https://bugs.python.org/issue42613 #42611: PEP 594 https://bugs.python.org/issue42611 #42610: Get the type from a variable https://bugs.python.org/issue42610 #42608: Installation failed from source code on Debian ([307/416] test https://bugs.python.org/issue42608 #42606: Support POSIX atomicity guarantee of O_APPEND on Windows https://bugs.python.org/issue42606 #42605: dir_util.copy_tree crashes if folder it previously created is https://bugs.python.org/issue42605 #42604: EXT_SUFFIX too short on FreeBSD and AIX https://bugs.python.org/issue42604 #42601: [doc] add more examples and additional explanation to re.sub https://bugs.python.org/issue42601 #42600: Cancelling tasks waiting for asyncio.Conditions crashes w/ Run https://bugs.python.org/issue42600 #42598: Some configure checks rely on implicit function declaration https://bugs.python.org/issue42598 #42597: Improve documentation of locals() w.r.t. "free variables" vs. https://bugs.python.org/issue42597 Most recent 15 issues waiting for review (15) ============================================= #42620: documentation on `getsockname()` wrong for AF_INET6 https://bugs.python.org/issue42620 #42615: Redundant jump instructions due to deleted unreachable bytecod https://bugs.python.org/issue42615 #42606: Support POSIX atomicity guarantee of O_APPEND on Windows https://bugs.python.org/issue42606 #42604: EXT_SUFFIX too short on FreeBSD and AIX https://bugs.python.org/issue42604 #42603: Tkinter: pkg-config is not used to get location of tcl and tk https://bugs.python.org/issue42603 #42598: Some configure checks rely on implicit function declaration https://bugs.python.org/issue42598 #42591: Method Py_FrozenMain missing in libpython3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42591 #42584: Upgrade macOS and Windows installers to use SQLite 3.34.0 https://bugs.python.org/issue42584 #42567: Enum: manually call __init_subclass__ after members are added https://bugs.python.org/issue42567 #42560: Improve Tkinter Documentation https://bugs.python.org/issue42560 #42559: random.getrandbits: Should it be explicit that it returns unsi https://bugs.python.org/issue42559 #42547: argparse: add_argument(... nargs='+', metavar=<tuple>) does no https://bugs.python.org/issue42547 #42545: Check that all symbols in the limited ABI are exported https://bugs.python.org/issue42545 #42531: importlib.resources.path() raises TypeError for packages witho https://bugs.python.org/issue42531 #42528: Improve the docs of most Py*_Check{,Exact} API calls https://bugs.python.org/issue42528 Top 10 most discussed issues (10) ================================= #39825: EXT_SUFFIX inconsistent between sysconfig and distutils.syscon https://bugs.python.org/issue39825 11 msgs #42572: Better path handling with argparse https://bugs.python.org/issue42572 11 msgs #42586: unittest.mock.Mock spec can't be array/ndarray in Python 3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42586 10 msgs #40600: Add option to disallow > 1 instance of an extension module https://bugs.python.org/issue40600 8 msgs #41559: Add support for PEP 612 to typing.py https://bugs.python.org/issue41559 8 msgs #42569: Callers of _Py_fopen/_Py_wfopen may be broken after addition o https://bugs.python.org/issue42569 7 msgs #42422: types.CodeType() has no bytecode verifier https://bugs.python.org/issue42422 6 msgs #42587: memoryview rely on _Bool undefined behavior (test_buffer fails https://bugs.python.org/issue42587 6 msgs #42591: Method Py_FrozenMain missing in libpython3.9 https://bugs.python.org/issue42591 6 msgs #39573: [C API] Make PyObject an opaque structure in the limited C API https://bugs.python.org/issue39573 5 msgs Issues closed (46) ================== #5054: CGIHTTPRequestHandler.run_cgi() HTTP_ACCEPT improperly parsed https://bugs.python.org/issue5054 closed by orsenthil #17005: Add a topological sort algorithm https://bugs.python.org/issue17005 closed by rhettinger #17612: hooks/mail.py requires [smtp] host to be set, despite a commen https://bugs.python.org/issue17612 closed by iritkatriel #17735: inspect.findsource raises IndexError https://bugs.python.org/issue17735 closed by taleinat #20415: Could method "isinstance" take a list as parameter? https://bugs.python.org/issue20415 closed by iritkatriel #25191: test_getsetlocale_issue1813 failed on OpenBSD https://bugs.python.org/issue25191 closed by terry.reedy #26131: Raise ImportWarning when loader.load_module() is used https://bugs.python.org/issue26131 closed by brett.cannon #30459: PyList_SET_ITEM could be safer https://bugs.python.org/issue30459 closed by vstinner #31601: Availability of utimensat, futimens not checked correctly on m https://bugs.python.org/issue31601 closed by jmr #31636: test_locale failure on OpenBSD https://bugs.python.org/issue31636 closed by terry.reedy #32381: Python 3.6 cannot reopen .pyc file with non-ASCII path https://bugs.python.org/issue32381 closed by vstinner #34750: locals().update doesn't work in Enum body, even though direct https://bugs.python.org/issue34750 closed by ethan.furman #36541: Make lib2to3 grammar better match Python, support the := walru https://bugs.python.org/issue36541 closed by BTaskaya #37166: inspect.findsource doesn't handle shortened files gracefully https://bugs.python.org/issue37166 closed by iritkatriel #38660: Checking if two regexes are equal should test if they are func https://bugs.python.org/issue38660 closed by serhiy.storchaka #38843: Document argparse behaviour when custom namespace object alrea https://bugs.python.org/issue38843 closed by rhettinger #39625: Traceback needs more details https://bugs.python.org/issue39625 closed by iritkatriel #39791: New `files()` api from importlib_resources. https://bugs.python.org/issue39791 closed by jaraco #40652: Test test_locale failed when running cpython test on Windows 1 https://bugs.python.org/issue40652 closed by terry.reedy #40747: sysconfig.get_config_var("py_version_nodot") should return 3_1 https://bugs.python.org/issue40747 closed by steve.dower #41439: test_uuid.py and test_ssl.py failure on OSes without os.fork ( https://bugs.python.org/issue41439 closed by vstinner #41443: some test cases in test_posix.py fail if some os attributes ar https://bugs.python.org/issue41443 closed by vstinner #41462: os.set_blocking() raises OSError on VxWorks RTOS https://bugs.python.org/issue41462 closed by vstinner #41889: enum: Mixin and int base class regression in 3.8.6 https://bugs.python.org/issue41889 closed by ethan.furman #41907: Regression in IntFlag behaviour in f-string https://bugs.python.org/issue41907 closed by ethan.furman #42116: Inspect library ignore comments at the end of a function (insp https://bugs.python.org/issue42116 closed by taleinat #42373: PEP 626 does not specify behavior of tracing for keywords. https://bugs.python.org/issue42373 closed by Mark.Shannon #42385: adjust enum.auto's behavior for StrEnum to return the enum nam https://bugs.python.org/issue42385 closed by ethan.furman #42482: TracebackException should not hold reference to the exception https://bugs.python.org/issue42482 closed by iritkatriel #42532: spec_arg's __bool__ is called while initializing NonCallableMo https://bugs.python.org/issue42532 closed by idanweiss97 #42536: Iterating on a zip keeps objects alive longer than expected (t https://bugs.python.org/issue42536 closed by pablogsal #42561: better error reporting in ast https://bugs.python.org/issue42561 closed by BTaskaya #42564: "from .__init__ import ..." syntax imports a duplicate module https://bugs.python.org/issue42564 closed by brett.cannon #42570: Try and Except doesn't work properly https://bugs.python.org/issue42570 closed by steven.daprano #42573: Installation of Python 3.9 failing with message "User cancelle https://bugs.python.org/issue42573 closed by tosunilmathew #42574: Travis can't build the 3.8 branch right now https://bugs.python.org/issue42574 closed by pablogsal #42576: Passing keyword arguments to types.GenericAlias causes a hard https://bugs.python.org/issue42576 closed by kj #42579: Solution from gh#python/cpython#13236 unnecessarily binds buil https://bugs.python.org/issue42579 closed by pablogsal #42582: Remove asyncio._all_tasks_compat() https://bugs.python.org/issue42582 closed by serhiy.storchaka #42583: JSON.dumps() creates invalid JSON with single quotes https://bugs.python.org/issue42583 closed by serhiy.storchaka #42592: TypedDict: total=False but still key required https://bugs.python.org/issue42592 closed by brandtbucher #42593: Consistency in unicode string multiplication with an integer https://bugs.python.org/issue42593 closed by syl-nktaylor #42595: 5 * str https://bugs.python.org/issue42595 closed by rhettinger #42599: Remove PyModule_GetWarningsModule() in pylifecycle.c https://bugs.python.org/issue42599 closed by vstinner #42607: raw strings SyntaxError https://bugs.python.org/issue42607 closed by eric.smith #42621: Python IDLE no longer opens after clicking on its icon https://bugs.python.org/issue42621 closed by 8962avi

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Runtime vs. Static Typing
by Paul Bryan 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

Per PEP 563: > Most importantly, Guido van Rossum explicitly stated interest in > gradually restricting the use of annotations to static typing (with > an optional runtime component). As I'm working on runtime type encoding and validation using type annotations, this passage raises a bit of a concern, as I don't know what is meant by optional runtime component. Looking for any discussion on this. I checked: https://bugs.python.org/issue38605 https://github.com/ambv/static-annotations/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed Can't find any references to runtime. Can someone point me to (or briefly explain) the thinking on this? Thanks, Paul

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NEWS, changelog, and blurb -- a teaching moment
by Ethan Furman 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Greetings! I'm hoping somebody can alleviate my confusion. I had thought that the blurb tool was created to resolve the near-constant push races when the NEWS file was updated; but it appears that it only affects the change log. If I have a change that really needs to be in the NEWS file itself, do I need to directly edit that file? -- ~Ethan~

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Can lib2to3 and 2to3 be deprecated yet?
by Victor Stinner 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Hi, I vaguely recall that PEP 617 "New PEG parser for CPython" was supposed to deprecate the lib2to3 module and the 2to3 program. I see that lib2to3/__init__.py contains a PendingDeprecationWarning in Python 3.9. Can it be converted into a regular DeprecationWarning and document the deprecation in Doc/library/2to3.rst? -- Do we still want to maintain lib2to3? People who didn't migrate to Python 3 can use 2to3 of Python 3.9 or Python 3.10. There are also other tools like 2to6, modernize, etc. (or my "sixer" project which I no longer maintains.) I'm not sure sure if the lib2to3 module is used by 3rd party projects like modernize or black? I understood that lib2to3 is a LL(1) parser and so cannot be used with latest Python grammar. Well, also, Python 2.7 is not longer supported. Victor -- Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.

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macOS issues with 3.8.7rc1
by Gregory Szorc 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Regarding the 3.8.7rc1 release, I wanted to raise some issues regarding macOS. Without the changes from https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/22855 backported, attempting to build a portable binary on macOS 11 (e.g. by setting `MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9`) results in a myriad of `warning: 'XXX' is only available on macOS 10.13 or newer [-Wunguarded-availability-new]` warnings during the build. This warning could be innocuous if there is run-time probing in place (the symbols in question are weakly linked, which is good). But if I'm reading the code correctly, run-time probing was introduced by commits like eee543722 and isn't present in 3.8.7rc1. I don't have a machine with older macOS sitting around to test, but I'm fairly certain the lack of these patches means binaries built on macOS 11 will blow up at run-time when run on older macOS versions. These same patches also taught CPython to build and run properly on Apple ARM hardware. I suspect some people will care about these being backported to 3.8. I suspect people in the Python application packaging/distribution space will be significantly affected by this (I know I am with PyOxidizer). Is it worth making the backport of these patches a 3.8.7 release blocker or a trigger for a special 3.8.8 release shortly thereafter? Gregory

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__future__ annotations loses closure scope
by Paul Bryan 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

It appears that when from future import __annotations__, a type hint annotation derived from a closure loses scope. Simplistic example: Python 3.9.0 (default, Oct 7 2020, 23:09:01) [GCC 10.2.0] on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> def make_a_class(data_type): ... class Foo: ... def put_data(self, data: data_type): ... self.data = data ... return Foo ... >>> import typing >>> foo = make_a_class(str)() >>> typing.get_type_hints(foo.put_data) {'data': <class 'str'>} >>> If I add a single import to the top, it breaks: Python 3.9.0 (default, Oct 7 2020, 23:09:01) [GCC 10.2.0] on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from __future__ import annotations # added this line >>> def make_a_class(data_type): ... class Foo: ... def put_data(self, data: data_type): ... self.data = data ... return Foo ... >>> import typing >>> foo = make_a_class(str)() >>> typing.get_type_hints(foo.put_data) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/usr/lib/python3.9/typing.py", line 1386, in get_type_hints value = _eval_type(value, globalns, localns) File "/usr/lib/python3.9/typing.py", line 254, in _eval_type return t._evaluate(globalns, localns, recursive_guard) File "/usr/lib/python3.9/typing.py", line 493, in _evaluate eval(self.__forward_code__, globalns, localns), File "<string>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name 'data_type' is not defined >>> I don't see how I can supply the closure scope as localns to get_type_hints. Any suggestions? Is constructing a (dynamically-type- annotated) class in a function like this an anti-pattern?

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Ideas for improving the contribution experience
by Tal Einat 08 Dec '20

08 Dec '20

(Context: Continuing to prepare for the core dev sprint next week. Since the sprint is near, *I'd greatly appreciate any quick comments, feedback and ideas!*) Following up my collection of past beginning contributor experiences, I've collected these experiences in a dedicated GitHub repo[1] and written a (subjective!) summary of main themes that I recognize in the stories, which I've also included in the repo[2]. A "TL;DR" bullet list of those main themes: * Slow/no responsiveness * Long, slow process * Hard to find where to contribute * Mentorship helps a lot, but is scarce * A lot to learn to get started * It's intimidating More specifically, something that has come up often is that maintaining momentum for new contributors is crucial for them to become long-term contributors. Most often, this comes up in relation to the first two points: Suggestions or PRs are completely receive no attention at all ("ignored") or stop receiving attention at some point ("lost to the void"). Unfortunately, the probability of this is pretty high for any issue/PR, so for a new contributor this is almost guaranteed to happen while working on one of their first few contributions. I've seen this happen many times, and have found that I have to personally follow promising contributors' work to ensure that this doesn't happen to them. I've also seen contributors learn to actively seek out core devs when these situations arise, which is often a successful tactic, but shouldn't be necessary so often. Now, this is in large part a result of the fact that us core devs are not a very large group, made up almost entirely of volunteers working on this in their spare time. Last I checked, the total amount of paid development time dedicated to developing Python is less than 3 full-time (i.e. ~100 hours a week). The situation being problematic is clear enough that the PSF had concrete plans to hire paid developers to review issues and PRs. However, those plans have been put on hold indefinitely, since the PSF's funding has shrunk dramatically since the COVID-19 outbreak (no PyCon!). So, what can be done? Besides raising more funds (see a note on this below), I think we can find ways to reduce how often issues/PRs become "stalled". Here are some ideas: 1. *Generate reminders for reviewers when an issue or PR becomes "stalled' due to them.* Personally, I've found that both b.p.o. and GitHub make it relatively hard to remember to follow up on all of the many issues/PRs you've taken part in reviewing. It takes considerable attention and discipline to do so consistently, and reminders like these would have helped me. Many (many!) times, all it took to get an issue/PR moving forward (or closed) was a simple "ping?" comment. 2. *Generate reminders for contributors when an issue or PR becomes "stalled" due to them.* Similar to the above, but I consider these separate. 3. *Advertise something like a "2-for-1" standing offer for reviews.* This would give contributors an "official", acceptable way to get attention for their issue/PR, other than "begging" for attention on a mailing list. There are good ways for new contributors to be of significant help despite being new to the project, such as checking whether old bugs are still relevant, searching for duplicate issues, or applying old patches to the current code and creating a PR. (This would be similar to Martin v. Löwis's 5-for-1 offer in 2012[3], which had little success but lead to some interesting followup discussion[4]). 4. *Encourage core devs to dedicate some of their time to working through issues/PRs which are "ignored" or "stalled".* This would require first generating reliable lists of issues/PRs in such states. This could be in various forms, such as predefined GitHub/b.p.o. queries, a dedicated web-page, a periodic message similar to b.p.o.'s "weekly summary" email, or dedicated tags/labels for issues/PRs. (Perhaps prioritize "stalled" over "ignored".) - Tal Einat [1]: https://github.com/taleinat/python-contribution-feedback [2]: https://github.com/taleinat/python-contribution-feedback/blob/master/Takeaw… [3]: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/7DLUN4Y… [4]: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/thread/N4MMHXXO…

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[RELEASE] Python 3.9.1 is now available, together with 3.10.0a3 and 3.8.7rc1
by Pablo Galindo Salgado 08 Dec '20

08 Dec '20

It's starting to get very cold (at least on the Northern hemisphere) so we have been carefully packaging a total of three new Python releases to keep you warm these days! Python 3.9.1 is the first maintenance release of Python 3.9, and also the first version of Python to support macOS 11 Big Sur natively on Apple Silicon. Go get it here: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-391/ Maintenance releases for the 3.9 series will continue at regular bi-monthly intervals, with **3.9.2** planned for Monday, 2021-02-08. Python 3.10a3 is the third alpha release of Python 3.10. You can get it here: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3100a3/ Python 3.10a3 is the release preview of the next maintenance release of Python 3.8. You can get it here: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-387rc1/ Assuming no critical problems are found prior to **2020-12-21** , the currently scheduled release date for **3.8.7** , no code changes are planned between this release candidate and the final release. That being said, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release of 3.8.7 and as such its main purpose is testing. Your friendly release team, Ned Deily, Steve Dower, Pablo Galindo, Łukasz Langa

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