[Python-ideas] Suggestion: Clear screen command for the REPL

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 06:38:00PM +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:

> Sounds good to me. This is definitely sounding complicated and messy
> enough to justify (a) writing a function to clear the screen, and (b)
> testing that function thoroughly as a PyPI module before pushing
> anything into the stdlib.

This isn't Node.js where standard operating procedure 
is to rely on the third-party npm ecosystem even for tiny, ten line 
functions. And we should be *glad* that's not the case:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/

People don't often install minor or small packages off PyPI as a matter 
of course: they either roll their own, or do without, depending on which 
is more painful, or whether they are even allowed to download 
third-party software (not everybody is), or whether managing the 
dependency is more or less work than writing their own.

I get it that not everything belongs in the std lib, and I get it that 
for *some* people (but not all) its easy to rely on packages in PyPI. 
But there's quite considerable friction in getting *small* things off 
PyPI. For starters, you have to know it exists, you have to trust that 
its functional and well-written. There is a huge amount of junk, 
abandoned and "version 0.1" packages on PyPI that nobody in their right 
mind should use. Dependencies don't come for free, they add complexity 
and cost to a project. Not everything belongs as a package on PyPI either.

If the cost of dealing with the added dependency is greater than 
the benefit gained, people won't use third-party packages on PyPI. For 
small but useful functionality, saying "Put it on PyPI" is effectively 
just a dismissal.

For relatively small pieces of functionality, if it is useful enough, we 
should just add it to the std lib, and if it isn't, we should just say 
it isn't useful enough. We shouldn't condemn supporters of the idea to 
this false hope that if they can convince a thousand, or a million, 
people to download their package, it will be added to PyPI.


-- 
Steve