Cheese Shop: some history for the new-comers

[Terry Hancock]

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 11:58:05 -0500
"Peter Decker" <pydecker at gmail.com> wrote:
> Of course, you're straying so far from the original
> thought behind this thread, and that is that the Python
> website is using some terms differently than the majority
> of people who will eventually use the site would
> understand them. The number of people who are brilliant
> enough to actually contribute to the development of the
> Python language is miniscule compared to the potential
> number of programmers out there who could adopt Python as
> their language of choice, and thus consider themselves
> 'Python developers'.

But the usual distinction (on any project web page) is
"User" versus "Developer".

Who is a "user" of Python? That would be you, right? It
would be fairly silly to have a page only for people who
have programs written in Python that they use (they're
*your program*'s users, not *python*'s users).

"Developer", in context, is clearly "one who *develops*
python", not "one who *uses* python to develop programs".

I don't see the ambiguity. I would be confused by the
opposite usage.

However, what you are complaining of is similar to the
situation with Zope, where "user" actually does have a sane
interpretation (basically "designer" or "scripter"), while a
"developer" is someone working on the Zope core. People who
"develop using Zope" are (still, I think) underrepresented
-- there never was a "product developer" or "component
developer" mailing list, I don't think.

In that context, some people use a term like "Core
Developer".  It seems a little redundant to me, but perhaps
it would be less ambiguous?

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com