[Python-Dev] IDLE development

[Nick Coghlan]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Often the needs of certain user groups and the development speeds of
> such 3rd party modules are so different that it simply doesn't make
> sense to fold them in the Python distribution anyway -- consider what
> you would have to do if Kurt accepted your patches: you'll still have
> to wait until Python 2.5 is released before others can benefit from
> your changes, and if you come up with an improvement after that
> release, your next chance will be 18 months later...

Isn't separate distribution the way the *current* version of Idle was 
developed? I seem to recall it existing as IDLEFork for a long time so that it 
could have a more rapid release cycle before being rolled into the main 
distribution.

This approach also allows a wider audience to asess the subjective benefits of 
any changes made - many more people will download and try out a separate IDE 
than will download and try out a patch to the main distribution. I'm such a 
one, even though I believe my main problems with Idle lie in the Tcl/tk 
toolkit (so I don't expect any application level changes to alter my opinion 
much).

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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