[Python-Dev] How far to go with user-friendliness

[Ben Finney]

Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:

> Sorry, I crossed a line there - I know everyone posting to this thread
> is doing so with the best interests of Python at heart.

Thanks for saying so, I was mulling a similar post but yours came first.

> The *problem* with threads like this one is that they end up feeling
> like punishment for being accommodating to the wishes of contributors
> on minor design details.

>From this questioner's perspective, threads like this also end up
feeling like an escalating dismissal (“this is just *not important*, and
no discussion will be entered into”) of salient user concerns regarding
the APIs on the standard library.

Neither of those impressions, I'm sure, was intended by any party to
this thread.

> Potential core developers are also likely to be put off by the
> prospect of "you too can volunteer to be micromanaged by a large
> community mailing list, doesn't that sound like fun?"

Requests for principled justification can be very easily misread as
blame. The mere absence of that intention is not enough to quell
suspicion; neither is the suspicion of it enough to respond as though
that is the intent.

We all need to remember that tendency, and take better care in
expressing ourselves.

For what it's worth: of course I think I speak for everyone here in
saying that I greatly appreciate the work of core contributors in
implementing CPython and the standard library, and continuing effort to
maintain it.

Thank you all.

-- 
 \        “What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?” —anonymous |
  `\                                                                   |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney