[python-committers] New comitter proposal: Terry Reedy

[Kurt B. Kaiser]

On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:15:22 +1000, "Nick Coghlan" <ncoghlan at gmail.com>
said:
> On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 7:25 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de>
> wrote:
> >> He has been contributing to Python via the tracker, c.l.p, python-dev
> >> and python-ideas for years and has recently requested commit
> >> privileges in order to work on IDLE. I think we should give them to
> >> him :)
> >
> > Has he actually contributed code to Python in all this time?
> 
> That I've seen myself? No (NEWS doesn't show any specific patch
> attributions, but he is listed in ACKS. If I've missed anything, Terry
> will hopefully let me know).
> 
> My suggestion was more a matter of someone I trust to do a good job of
> reviewing and selecting for inclusion improvements to IDLE to provide
> KBK with more support than the existing comitters are able to provide.
> I realise it isn't the way we normally do things, but in this specific
> case I think it is worth a try.

Terry's an unusual case.  Although I'm a still a bit tied up atm, I took
the time to look around a bit and found that he's been contributing
strongly to Python for some time.  We haven't crossed paths because I
don't hang around the lists and he doesn't submit patches.

His modus operandi is to identify a bug, often by picking it up on
python-list, and putting it on the tracker.  He then is able to convince
someone to present a patch, and get a different person to commit it.  He
doesn't usually make a comment on the patch itself.

I think what he is doing shows a rather unique management talent.  I
suspect he might actually get less done if he was processing the patches
himself, with associated testing and backporting!

He's made the comment a couple of times recently that he doesn't have a
development environment and can't make patches.  That's unusual. 
However, since IDLE is pure Python, the necessary development
environment is minimal, I'd be happy to help him get set up.  I'm pretty
sure he has pretty much everything he needs already.

Some of the patches submitted to IDLE need a fair amount of polishing. 
Tal Einat's, for example, usually need work and testing.  I'd expect
that Terry would scrutinize them carefully, and not just check them in.

+1

-- 
KBK