[Python-Dev] GSoC idea: PEP process enhancements (Was: [issue7284] argparse - display version in usage by default)

[Nick Coghlan]

On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 2:55 AM, anatoly techtonik <techtonik at gmail.com> wrote:
> What if we could accompany every PEP draft with series of use
> cases/user stories? I don't know how many people actually reviewed
> this particular PEP 389, and that's bad, because without this info it
> is hard to say if there were enough reviews from future users.

I admire your passion to make everything perfect, and your dream that
there are technological solutions to every social problem (i.e. people
missing things, or settling for "better" when you want them to aim for
"best").

It's a volunteer community. We muddle through as best we can, without
the ability to undertake full blown usability studies and analyses,
instead relying on straw polls of mailing lists, anecdotal evidence
and simple gut instinct of experienced developers. That's the reality
of open source development when you don't have a well-funded
individual in the driver's seat with the ability and desire to force a
particular design direction (ala Shuttleworth and Ubuntu).

You're welcome to come up with what you think is an improvement over
simply cloning the PEPs repo and maintaining a competing PEP (or
proposing patches to the existing one), but don't expect people to
just fall in love with whatever you suggest (remember past experiences
with advocating the use of Google Wave).

However, even if you did decide to do this, it wouldn't be suitable as
a GSoC project, as it would ultimately be about social engineering,
not coding.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia