PEP submission broken?

[Steve Holden]

Bryan Olson wrote:
> Though I tried to submit a (pre-) PEP in the proper form through the proper
> channels, it has disappeared into the ether.
> 
> 
> In building a class that supports Python's slicing interface,
> 
>    http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/8f35464483aa7d7b
> 
> I encountered a Python bug, which, upon further discussion, seemed to be
> a combination of a wart and a documentation error.
> 
>  
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_frm/thread/402d770b6f503c27
> 
> I submitted the bug report via SourceForge; the resolution was to document
> the actual behavior.  Next I worked out what behavior I think would 
> eliminate
> the wart, wrote it up as a pre-PEP, and sent it peps at python.org on 27 Aug of
> this year.
> 
> I promptly received an automated response from Barry Warsaw, saying, in 
> part,
> "I get so much email that I can't promise a personal response."  I 
> gathered that
> he is a PEP editor. I did not infer from his reply that PEP's are simply 
> ignored, but
> this automated reply was the only response I ever received. I subscribed 
> to the
> Python-dev list, and watched, and waited; nothing on my concern appeared.
> 
> 
> One response on the comp.lang.python newsgroup noted that a popular
> extention module would have difficulty maintaining consistency with my
> proposed PEP.  My proposal does not break how the extension currently
> works, but still, that's a valid point. There are variations which do 
> not have
> that problem, and I think I can see a  course that will serve the entire
> Python community. From what I can tell, We need to address fixing the
> PEP process before there is any point in working on PEP's,
> 
> 
> 
It would seem that your PEP has failed to grab the attention of the 
developers. Since August there have been quite a few PEP changes. What 
response are you expecting from the PEP editor?

In this case I would suggest you might email Barry to see whether he has 
taken any action on the pre-PEP, or that a post to python-dev simply 
inquiring whether anyone has read the pre-PEP might be appropriate.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, treat this situation as 
accidental rather than deliberate. Two months is a long time to wait, so 
maybe you should have asked about this rather sooner. Volunteers don't 
always behave as perfect bureaucrats :-)

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden       +44 150 684 7255  +1 800 494 3119
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