[Python-Dev] Status of 2.7 and 3.2

[anatoly techtonik]

On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 11:01 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
>
> I am not quite sure whether you are for new features or not. Your
> first sentence ("vote for ... not adding new features") seems to
> suggest that you would not like to see new features, and your last
> sentence ("absence of native curses/console/readline module")
> suggests that you *do* want to see new features (namely, a native
> curses module, and a native readline module).
>
> Which one is it?

I would like to see new features in Python, but only if they are
cross-platform. Unfortunately, I do not possess C skills to make this
happen, nor do I have deep understanding of Microsoft Visual Studio
.project files to port Makefiles and GCC options even when codebase is
available for windows.

The level to make a contribution in this case is too high. The lack of
free time makes it impossible to close the gap in one step leaving
remnants of work-in-process that will make it harder to continue in
future than to start from scratch.

Perhaps the necessity to make it in one huge step could be compensated
by incremental solution approach and development process if there was
obvious centralized place to organize efforts AND provide clear
visibility into progress made so far, initial plan, plan deviation and
current status. Mailing lists are good for discussions, but that's all
- information becomes outdated, text-too-much, no prompt reply often
stops the progress. Perhaps I shift my problem from lack-of-skill into
lack-of-tools direction, but being amazed by efforts people put into
supporting this mailing list I most of the time unable to reply to
emails I get mostly because replies require time for testing and
proving facts.

There is no definite proposal to solve problems of enabling OpenID or
SSO for python.org, of porting curses to windows, of testing
subprocessing etc., but there is an idea that some things could be
given more visibility AND priority to allow people to see the big
picture and focus on outstanding problems. Even though most people
here know about big-things-to-fix, these things doesn't standout from
the pile of issues in roundup.

The thing I miss the most is ability to gather all information
relevant to one problem in one place. This includes timeline with
commits, branches, relevant issues, issue updates, relevant wiki
edits, current focus URLs, _filtered_ threads and refactored comments.
The problem is to ensure that this information is up to date and
provide easy way/instruction how to bring it up to date in case
something is broken. It is not necessary to meet the bus to experience
the effect of bus factor.

-- 
anatoly t.