[Python-Dev] PEP 411: Provisional packages in the Python standard library

[Eric Snow]

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 11:32 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 1:39 PM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is there more to it than having a simple __provisional__ attribute on
>> the module and/or a list at sys.provisional_modules?
>
> Yes. As soon as we touch functional code, it because something to be
> tested and the process overhead on our end is noticeably higher.
>
> However, I'd be fine with requiring that a short form for the notice
> appear at the start of the module docstring. For example:
>
> "The API of this module is currently provisional. Refer to the
> documentation for details."
>
> This would then be seen by pydoc and help(), as well as being amenable
> to programmatic inspection.

Sounds good enough to me.  Realistically, the utility of getting
provisional modules distributed with the stdlib far outweighs the
theoretical use cases of programmatic inspection.  If something like
"__provisional__" turns out to be really useful, that bridge can be
crossed later. I certainly don't want this PEP bogged down by a
relatively superfluous point.  :)

-eric