[Python-Dev] Re: Bug fix releases

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "TW" == Thomas Wouters <thomas@xs4all.net> writes:

  [GvR:]
  >> So that relegates us at PythonLabs to a number of things: coding
  >> new modules (boring), or trying to improve performance of the
  >> virtual machine (equally boring, and difficult to boot), or
  >> fixing bugs (did I mention boring? :-).

  TW> How can you say this ? Okay, so *fixing* bugs isn't terribly
  TW> exciting, but hunting them down is one of the best sports
  TW> around. Same for optimizations: rewriting the code might be
  TW> boring (though if you are a fast typist, it usually doesn't take
  TW> long enough to get boring :) but thinking them up is the fun
  TW> part.

  TW> But who said PythonLabs had to do all the work ? You guys didn't
  TW> do all the work in 2.0->2.1, did you ? Okay, so most of the
  TW> major features are written by PythonLabs, and most of the
  TW> decisions are made there, but there's no real reason for
  TW> it.

Most of the work I did for Python 2.0 was fixing bugs.  It was a lot
of fairly tedious but necessary work.  I have always imagined that
this was work that most people wouldn't do unless they were paid to do
it.  (python-dev seems to have a fair number of exceptions, though.)

Working on major new features has a lot more flash, so I imagine that
volunteers would be more inclined to help.  Neil's work on GC or yours
on augmented assignment are examples.

There's nothing that says we have to do all the work.  In fact, I
imagine we'll continue to collectively spend a lot of time on
maintenance issues.  We get paid to do it, and we get to hack on Zope
and ZODB the rest of the time, which is also a lot of fun.

Jeremy