[Python-Dev] Integrate BeautifulSoup into stdlib?

[Michael Foord]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>> In light of this, what I'd love to see (but sadly can't really help
>> with, and am not optimistic about happening) is for:
>>
>> - python to grow a decent, cross platform, package management system
>>
>> - the standard library to actually shrink to a point where only
>> libraries that are not released elsewhere are included
>>
>> I'd be interested to know how many users of python also felt this way ;-)
>>     
>
> I don't like the standard library to shrink. It's good that batteries
> are included.
>   
I have mixed feelings. It is great that the batteries are included, but 
some batteries are showing their age or not maintained (who maintains 
IDLE? - does the calendar module really warrant being in the standard 
library? - imaplib is really not useful and IMAPClient which isn't in 
the standard library is much better [1]).

If a library is well maintained then there seems to be little point in 
moving it into the standard library as it may actually be harder to 
maintain, and if a library has no active developers then do we really 
want it in the standard library...

On the other hand there are some standard tools that a significant 
portion of the community use (Python Imaging Library and the PyWin32 
extensions for example) that aren't in the standard library.

I think other developers have similar mixed feelings, or at least there 
are enough people on both sides of the fence that it is very hard to 
make changes. Perhaps this is the way it should be.

Michael

[1] http://freshfoo.com/wiki/CodeIndex

> Regards,
> Martin
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