Jeff> 1) How is the project governed? How does the community make Jeff> decisions on what goes into a release? Jeff> You know, I've been a member of the Python community for many Jeff> years -- I know about PEPs, Guido as BDFL, and +1/-1. But I've Jeff> never figured out exactly how -final- decisions are made on Jeff> what goes into a release. I've never needed to, until now. Jeff> Can someone explain in one paragraph? Consensus (most of the time) and GvR pronouncements for significant changes. There are situations where Guido has simply pronounced when the community seemed unable to settle on one solution. Decorators come to mind. Jeff> 2) Does the language have a formal defined release plan? Jeff> I know Zope 3's release plan, every six months, but not that of Jeff> Python. Is there a requirement to push a release out the door Jeff> every N months, as some projects do, or is each release Jeff> separately negotiated with developers around a planned set Jeff> of features? PEP 6? PEP 101? PEP 102? There is no hard-and-fast time schedule. I believe minor releases leave the station approximately every 18-24 months, micro releases roughly every six months. Jeff> 3) Some crude idea of how many new major and minor features were Jeff> added in the last release? Yes, I know this is difficult -- the Jeff> idea it so get some measure of the evolution/stability of cPython Jeff> re features. Jython and IronPython are probably changing rapidly Jeff> -- cPython, not such much. Haven't the slightest idea. Check Andrew's What's New document. Jeff> 4) How many committers to the cPython core are there? 71, according to the Assignee menu in SourceForge. I suspect at most a quarter of them are active. Skip