[Python-ideas] Documenting Python warts on Stack Overflow

[Eli Bendersky]

>  2) a bunch of people answering "what is a wart" is not a way to get the
>> Python community to agree on what needs to be changed in the language.
>> People with ideas need to write them up thoughtfully with proposals for
>> improvements, and then engage meaningfully in the discussion that follows.
>>
>> You seem to think that people just need to identify "warts" and then we
>> can start changing the language to remove them.  What you consider a "wart"
>> is probably the result of a complex balance of competing forces.  Changing
>> Python is hard.  We take backward compatibility very seriously, and that
>> sometimes makes it hard to "remove warts."
>>
>
> You've nailed it. The goal of listing warts on SO is not to prove that
> some language suxx [1], but to provide answers to question about *why* some
> particular wart exists. "wart" may not be the best word, because from the
> other side of rebalancing things there is most likely some "feature", but
> when people experience problems, they usually face only one side of the
> story [2]
>
> As I already said it is impossible to fully master the language without a
> complete coverage of such things. These things are equally interesting for
> users and for future contributors. There are the starting points in
> making the next better generation dynamic language (if the one is possible).
>
> SO is a FAQ site, not a web-page or a wiki, so I expect there to be
> answers with research on the history of design decisions behind the
> balancing of the language, the sources of "warts" and things that are
> balancing them on the other side. I expect there to find analysis what
> features will have to be removed in order for some specific "wart" to be
> gone, and I see it as a perfect entrypoint for learning high-level things
> about programming languages.
>
>
Yet again, while I don't speak for the whole Python dev community, I
predict this will not be officially endorsed. As for explaining why some
things are the way they are, there are plenty of blog articles on the web
trying to explain Python internals. Nick Coghlan has some very good ones
(with the benefit of his being actually in the position to say *why* things
are this way historically), Guido has articles on the history of Python,
and even my humble blog has some internals pieces (which are more focused
on the "how" instead of "why").

Consider directing your energies and obvious love for Python to
constructive channels like contributing similar articles of your own. I'm
sure that you'll be able to find core devs willing to review such articles
and discuss them prior to your posting them. Also feel free to collect all
such articles in some central location and maintaining the list - this
actually could be very helpful for a lot of Python fans and devs alike.

Eli
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