[Python-Dev] Python bug week-end : 20-21 November

[Antoine Pitrou]

Hello,

The development team of the Python interpreter (a.k.a python-dev) is
organizing a bug week-end on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st of November.

We would like to encourage anyone who feels interested in participating
to give it a try. Contributing to Python is much less intimidating than
it sounds. You don't need to have previous experience with modifying
the Python source; in fact bug days offer a good opportunity to learn
the basics by asking questions and working on relatively simple bugs
(see "how to get prepared" below). And most core developers are actual
human beings!

How it happens
--------------

The bug week-end will happen on the #python-dev IRC channel on the
Freenode network, where several core developers routinely hang out. No
physical meeting is scheduled as far as I know, but anyone is
encouraged to organize one and announce it on the official Python
channels such as this one.

Participants (you!) join #python-dev and collaboratively go through the
Python issue tracker at http://bugs.python.org . From there, you can
provide patches and/or review existing patches. Also, you can help us
assess issues on any specific topic you have expertise in (the range of
topics touched in the stdlib is quite broad and it is more than likely
that the core developers' expertise is lacking in some of them).

Or, if you feel shy, you can simply watch other people work and
slowly get more confident about participating yourself.
Development is public and lurkers are welcome.

What you can work on
---------------------

Our expectation is that Python 3.2 beta 1 will have been released a
couple of days before the bug week-end and, therefore, one primary goal
is to polish the 3.2 branch for the following betas and the final
release. There are many issues to choose from on the bug tracker; any
bug fixes or documentation improvements will do. New features are
discouraged: they can't be checked in before the official 3.2 release.

How to get prepared
-------------------

If you are a beginner with the Python codebase, you may want to read the
development guide available here (courtesy of Brian Curtin):
http://docs.pythonsprints.com/core_development/beginners.html

There's a small practical guide to bug days/week-ends on the wiki:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBugDay

And the development FAQ holds answers to generic development questions:
http://www.python.org/dev/faq/

You can also do all of the above during the bug week-end, of course.
Please, don't hesitate to ask us questions on the #python-dev channel.

Regards

Antoine.