On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 8:42 AM MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
(a PyPI build farm, anyone?)
Funny that you should mention that - I mentioned conda-forge as a lightly curated collection. But it didn't start out with that aim in mind. It started as a way for folks to collaborate on building conda packages. Then it turned into a build farm -- which is really it's primary purpose today -- it just so happens that the process ends up providing some curation :-) So maybe we could learn from that -- one problem with running a curated repository is that not only does the curation take work, but how do you get people to contribute to it? until it reaches substantial critical mass, there'd be zero motivation for someone to put their package on there. conda-forge has been successful because from its beginning, and to this day, it's the only way to make a package easily accessible to the conda community.[*]. Perhaps providing a build system would provide that motivation. But there would still be a massive critical mass problem. -CHB [*] Well, we did give out mugs at SciPy to folks that contributed a package -- but somehow I doubt that made a dent :-)
How about adding ticks to some PyPI packages? :-)
I do wonder if a public rating system ("upvote" or "stars" or ??) could work -- I'm very wary of how it could be gamed or otherwise abused, but maybe there are ways of controlling that? We can get stats on how often different packages are downloaded, which is a start, but a way for the community to highlight the cream of the crop, and everyone to see that would be nice, if it worked. -CHB -- Christopher Barker, PhD (Chris) Python Language Consulting - Teaching - Scientific Software Development - Desktop GUI and Web Development - wxPython, numpy, scipy, Cython