[Python-Dev] Inclusion of lz4 bindings in stdlib?

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2018, 08:34 Antoine Pitrou <antoine at python.org wrote:

>
> Le 29/11/2018 à 17:25, Steve Dower a écrit :
> >
> > My experience is that the first group would benefit from a larger
> > _standard distribution_, which is not necessarily the same thing as a
> > larger stdlib.
> >
> > I'm firmly on the "smaller core, larger distribution" side of things,
> > where we as the core team take responsibility for the bare minimum
> > needed to be an effective language and split more functionality out to
> > individual libraries.
>
> We may ask ourselves if there is really a large difference between a
> "standard distribution" and a "standard library".  The primary
> difference seems to be that the distribution is modular, while the
> stdlib is not.
>

Some differences that come to mind:

- a standard distribution provides a clear path for creating and managing
subsets, which is useful when disk/download weight is an issue. (This is
another situation that only affects some people and is easy for most of us
to forget about.) I guess this is your "modular" point?

- a standard distribution lets those who *do* have internet access install
upgrades incrementally as needed.

- This may be controversial, but my impression is that keeping package
development outside the stdlib almost always produces better packages in
the long run. You get faster feedback cycles, more responsive maintainers,
and it's just easier to find people to help maintain one focused package in
an area they care about than it is to get new core devs on board. Of course
there's probably some survivorship bias here too (urllib is worse than
requests, but is it worse than the average third-party package http
client?). But that's my impression.

Concretely: requests, pip, numpy, setuptools are all examples of packages
that should *obviously* be included in any self-respecting set of
batteries, but where we're not willing to put them in the stdlib. Obviously
we aren't doing a great job of supporting offline users, regardless of
whether we add lz4.

There are a lot of challenges to switching to a "standard distribution"
model. I'm not certain it's the best option. But what I like about it is
that it could potentially reduce the conflict between what our different
user groups need, instead of playing zero-sum tug-of-war every time this
comes up.

-n
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