[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] Python needs a standard asynchronous return object

[Jesse Noller]

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 1:39 AM, Andrew Bennetts <andrew at bemusement.org> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
> [...]
>>
>> Unless you want to propose to include Twisted into the stdlib, this is
>> not going to be ready for inclusion into Python 3.2.
>
> I don't think anyone has suggested "include Twisted".  What is being suggested
> is "include twisted.internet.defer, or something about as useful."
>
> Let's consider just how hard it would be to just adding
> twisted/internet/defer.py to the stdlib (possibly as 'deferred.py').  It's
> already almost a standalone module, especially if pared back to just the
> Deferred class and maybe one or two of the most useful helpers (e.g.
> gatherResults, to take a list of Deferreds and turn them into a single Deferred
> that fires when they have all fired).
>
> The two most problematic dependencies would be:
>
>  1) twisted.python.log, which for these purposes could be replaced with a call
>    to a user-replaceable hook whenever an unhandled error occurs (similiar to
>    sys.excepthook).
>  2) twisted.python.failure... this one is harder.  As glyph said, it provides
>    "an object that represent[s] an exception as raised at a particular point,
>    associated with a particular stack".  But also, as he said, it's a mess and
>    could use a clean up.  Cleaning it up or thinking of a simpler replacement
>    is not insurmountable, but probably too ambitious for Python 3.2's schedule.
>
> My point is that adding the Deferred abstraction to the stdlib is a *much*
> smaller and more reasonable proposition than "include Twisted."
>
> -Andrew.

No on was seriously proposing including twisted wholesale. There has
been discussion, off and on *for years* about doing including a
stripped down deferred object; and yet no one has stepped up to *do
it*, so it might be hilariously easy, it might be a 40 line module,
but it doesn't matter if no one steps up to do the pep, and commit the
code, and commit to maintaining it.

jesse