[Python-Dev] PEP 3144 review, and the inclusion process

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> Peter Moody <peter <at> hda3.com> writes:
>>
>> I've never said otherwise. In fact, from an email last night, "If what
>> the community requires is the library you've described, then ipaddr is
>> not that library." The changes *you* require make ipaddr significantly
>> less useful to me. I'm not prepared to make those changes in an
>> attempt seek acceptance to the stdlib, especially if the stdlib is in
>> such flux that I'll get to do this again in 18 months.
>
> Well, then I'm not sure why we have a PEP at all.
> If you don't want any significant changes and if you consider it to be *your*
> library, ipaddr can remain a third-party package that interested people can
> easily install (no pun ;-)) since AFAIK it's pure Python. It will also make
> maintenance easier for you, while freeing us (core developers) from having to
> bother about it in our daily development tasks.
>
> At least that's what I would advocate right now - not sure about what others
> think.

I think Peter is pretty frustrated by the many attacks on "his"
library. There are probably a number of different things going on
simultaneous: Peter has been driven into the defense by attacks both
reasonable and unreasonable, there have been misunderstandings all
around, teasing out use cases (by both parties) has been a problem.

Things might have gone differently if the PEP had started out with
multiple authors. Maybe it's not too late to add one or more other
interested parties to the PEP with the purpose of making the PEP more
clearly the result of a consensus-gathering process.  Any volunteers?

At the same time I don't think a complete reset of the proposed API is
necessary.  I am rather more thinking of judicious API tweaks in order
to cover some new use cases, without requiring a complete rewrite or
destroying the usability of the proposal for Peter's original use
cases. (In general I am pretty happy with the ipaddr code and API; it
looks like what I would have done, but then I am blissfully unaware of
some of the issues brought up in this thread.)

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)