[Python-Dev] PEP 3148 ready for pronouncement

[Paul Moore]

On 26 May 2010 11:56, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 2010 20:42:12 +1000
> Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>>
>> I'm not saying that Python-Dev should bend over backwards to accommodate
>> such people to the exclusion of all else, but these folks are
>> stakeholders too, and their wants and needs are just as worthy as the
>> wants and needs of those who prefer a more conservative approach to the
>> standard library.
>
> Well, my "Sumo" proposal was a serious one.
> (not serious in that I would offer to give a hand, but in that I think
> it could help those people; also, wouldn't it be sensible for users in
> a corporate environment to share their efforts and produce something
> that can benefit all of them? it's the free software spirit after all)

I'm not sure how a "Sumo" approach would work in practical terms, and
this thread isn't really the place to discuss, but there's a couple of
points I think are worth making:

* For a "Sumo" distribution to make sense, some relatively substantial
chunk of the standard library would need to be moved *out* to reside
in the sumo distribution. Otherwise it's not really a "sumo", just a
couple of modules that "nearly made it into the stdlib", at least for
the near-to-medium term. I've yet to see any sort of consensus that
python-dev is willing to undertake that decoupling work. (Which would
include extracting the various tests, migrating bugs out of the
pythion tracker, etc etc).

* If the decoupled modules aren't simply being abandoned, python-dev
needs to continue to commit to supporting them "in the wild" (i.e., on
PyPI and in the sumo distribution). Otherwise we're just abandoning
existing users and saying "support it yourself". I've seen no
indication that python-dev members would expect to follow bug trackers
for various decoupled modules - so in practice, this sounds more like
abandonment than decoupling.

Until a stdlib-decoupling proposal which takes these aspects into
account is on the table, I'm afraid that suggesting there's a "Sumo
distribution" style middle ground between stdlib and PyPI isn't really
true...

Paul.