[Python-ideas] Proposal: Moratorium on Python language changes

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 9:07 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum writes:
>
>  > The proposed moratorium is a *conscious decision*, an intentional
>  > policy meant to have a certain effect. This is just the opposite of
>  > evolution in nature (unless you believe in "intelligent design" :-).
>
> By Clarke's Law, I see no way to distinguish between the presence and
> the absence of intelligent design in nature.

So using Occam's razor we might as well assume there is none.

>  > While I mentioned 3.x in my original message about the moratorium, I
>  > didn't mean to imply that the moratorium would solve the slow uptake
>  > directly. The intent was to give people who would otherwise work on
>  > language change proposals more time and motivation to work on porting
>  > 3rd party packages to Py3k.
>
> Time, yes, but I'm not sure I see where the motivation comes from.  Do
> you mean something like:
>
>    remove all hope from "design + maybe implementation" proposals,
>    with the intent of encouraging "design + implementation + clear
>    application to use case" proposals.
>
> where porting to Py3k should be a prolific source of use cases?  ISTM
> that has been the desired historical criterion for inclusion in Python
> anyway.  So a moratorium might reduce the number of "frivolous"
> proposals, but is it really going to encourage work on porting?
> (Those are all really yes/no questions from my standpoint.)

But hard to answer. Have faith. :-)

> If not, Steven d'Aprano's line that Python has been quite stable
> anyway, up to Python 3, and so (IIU him C) there's really no need for
> a formal moratorium, becomes very plausible.

We're seeing an influx of new developers. They don't all remember or
understand why we had to limit releases to once per 18+ months. The
moratorium reminds them and their fans of the importance of *not*
adding new features.

> That is, since there
> doesn't seem to be a strong call for a moratorium from the Jython /
> Cython / IronPython / PyPy end.  (So far, that it.  I don't suppose
> the final word has been spoken by those developers, yet.)
>
>  > PS. My elbow needs a couple more weeks of rest. Limiting myself to
>  > ultra-short emails.
>
> May the Intelligent Designer have mercy on your elbow!<wink>

I trust my doctor a little more.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum

PS. My elbow needs a couple more weeks of rest. Limiting myself to
ultra-short emails.