On Sun, Dec 1, 2019, 11:06 AM Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
Hi folks,
sorry, took me more than a few months, but I wrote a draft of a
On 12/1/19 10:45 AM, C. Titus Brown wrote: python-ideas HOWTO here,
Thanks so much for writing this. I think Python-Ideas is a perfect example of something that could use an introduction, so that peoples' expectations are properly set.
Thanks to Eric Smith and Chris Barker for their link suggestions, and Chris Angelico and Guido van Rossum for their additional thoughts in a brief off-list thread.
SO. The question becomes, where do we host this?
I received the strong suggestion from both Guido and Stephen Turnbull that it should be in the devguide (see quoted message from GvR below).
But, when I finished this draft and went to look at the devguide repo, realized that the devguide at https://devguide.python.org/ may not be the best place to host it, because (as written) the dev guide is VERY focused on code development. I think this HOWTO is a bit more community and process oriented than the current top-level materials in the dev guide.
So instead of submitting a PR, I am appealing to the list for your thoughts.
The three easiest options I see are:
1. Put it on python.org, perhaps replacing the content here: https://www.python.org/dev/. I can’t figure out where that content is hosted (it’s not in https://github.com/python/pythondotorg/ !?)
To me, the audience for the Python-Ideas HOWTO is very different than for /dev/: the people suggesting ideas are not necessarily proposing to implement the ideas. They definitely are not (yet) interested in the process of developing CPython. This is doubly true for the people who really need to read the HOWTO.
2. put it in the current dev guide somewhere, just so it lands in
version control. Then iterate on both it and the dev guide. My first thought would be to merge the content with this document, https://github.com/python/devguide/blob/master/langchanges.rst. Again, the devguide will not be an obvious place for people to stumble across the HOWTO.
+1, developer-oriented material is the wrong place. Most first-time posters won't see it there at all.
3. put it somewhere near the front of the current dev guide, and do more work to adjust the dev guide.
Thoughts? Am I missing am obvious location? Should I just get on with a PR and we’ll sort it out later? :)
There is a page that catalogs the mailing lists: https://www.python.org/community/lists/ . A new page linked from the Python-Ideas description (which is very brief!) sounds good to me.
Thanks again for doing this!
--Ned.
I'd suggest putting the full text on the list sign up page above the subscription form (to encourage reading before signing up) and perhaps even in the body of an automated welcome email upon subscribing. The goal is to have as many new subscribers read it as possible, and that requires making it as visible as possible. Text will be read if easily seen and not buried "below the fold". Links are much less likely to be followed.