[Python-ideas] Move Demo scripts under Lib

[Brett Cannon]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 07:56, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 7:33 AM, Dirkjan Ochtman <dirkjan at ochtman.nl> wrote:
>> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 16:00, Alexander Belopolsky
>> <alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> What do you think?
>>
>> After browsing through the Demo dir a bit, I came away thinking most
>> of these should just be removed from the repository.
>
> +1. Most of them are either quick hacks I once wrote and didn't know
> where to put (dutree.py, repeat.py come to mind) or in some cases
> contributed 3rd party code that was looking for a home. I think that
> all of these ought to live somewhere else and I have no problem with
> tossing out the entire Demo and Tools directories -- anything that's
> not needed as part of the build should go. (Though a few things might
> indeed be moved into the stdlib if they are useful enough.)

Just to toss in my +1, I have suggested doing this before and received
push-back in the form of "it isn't hurting anyone". But considering
how often the idea of trying to fix the directory comes up and never
occurs, it is obviously wasting people's time keeping the directories
around. So I say move the stuff needed as part fo the build or dev
process (e.g., patchcheck is in the Tools directory) and then drop the
directory. We can give a deadline of some release like Python 3.2b1 or
b2 to move scripts people care about, and then simply do a mass
deletion just before cutting a release.

-Brett

>
>> I think there's
>> enough demo material out there on the internet (for example in the
>> cookbook), a lot of it of higher quality than what we have in the Demo
>> dir right now. Maybe it makes sense to have a basic tkinter app to get
>> you started. And some of the smaller functions or classes could
>> possibly be used in the documentation. But as it is, it seems silly to
>> waste developer time on stuff that few people look at or make use of
>> (I'm assuming this from the fact that they have previously been
>> neglected).
>
> None of that belongs in the core distro any more.
>
>> Back to the original question: I don't think moving the Demo stuff to
>> the Lib dir is a good idea, simply because the Lib dir should contain
>> libraries, not applications or scripts. Writing a section for the
>> documentation seems a better way to solve the discoverability problem,
>> testing could be done even in the Demo dir (with more structure if
>> need be), and quality control could just as well be exercised in the
>> current location.
>
> If there are demos that are useful for testing, move them into Lib/test/.
>
> --
> --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
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