[Numpy-discussion] The process I intend to follow for any proposed changes to NumPy

[Travis Oliphant]

Hey all,

I just wanted to clarify, that I am very excited about a few ideas I have
--- but I don't have time myself to engage in the community process to get
these changes into NumPy.     However, those are real processes --- I've
been coaching a few people in those processes for the past several years
already.

So, rather than do nothing, what I'm looking to do is to work with a few
people who I can share my ideas with, get excited about the ideas, and then
who will work with the community to get them implemented.   That's what I
was announcing and talking about yesterday --- looking for interested
people who want to work on NumPy *with* the NumPy community.

In my enthusiasm, I realize that some may have mis-understood my
intention.  There is no 'imminent' fork, nor am I planning on doing some
crazy amount of work that I then try to force on other developers of NumPy.


What I'm planning to do is find people to train on NumPy code base (people
to increase the diversity of the developers would be ideal -- but hard to
accomplish).  I plan to train them on NumPy based on my experience, and on
what I think should be done --- and then have *them* work through the
community process and engage with others to get consensus (hopefully not
losing too much in translation in the process --- but instead getting even
better).

During that process I will engage as a member of the community and help
write NEPs and other documents and help clarify where it makes sense as I
can.   I will be filtering for people that actually want to see NumPy get
better.    Until I identify the people and work with them, it will be hard
to tell how this will best work.   So, stay tuned.

If all goes well, what you should see in a few weeks time are specific
proposals, a branch or two, and the beginnings of some pull requests.    If
you don't see that, then I will not have found the right people to help me,
and we will all continue to go back to searching.

While I'm expecting the best, in the worst case, we get additional people
who know the NumPy code base and can help squash bugs as well as implement
changes that are desired.    Three things are needed if you want to
participate in this:  1) A willingness to work with the open source
community, 2) a deep knowledge of C and in-particular CPython's brand of C,
and 3) a willingness to engage with me, do a mind-meld and dump around the
NumPy code base, and then improve on what is in my head with the rest of
the community.

Thanks,

-Travis
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