Procedure to request adding a module to the standard library - or initiating a vote on it

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/7/2012 6:13 AM, Helmut Jarausch wrote:

> I'd like to request adding the module
> http://pypi.python.org/pypi/regex
> to Python's standard library in the (near) future

As near as I can tell, the author is lukewarm about the prospect.

To respond the general question:

The author of a module should be warm to hot about the idea and must be 
willing to move development into the stdlib source tree and conform to 
Python's release schedule, which may be too slow for actively developed 
modules.

(If the module wraps a well-known and maintained external C library, the 
wrapper must go into the source tree. Then the docs says that the stdlib 
module wraps something we are not responsible for.)

There should be community support for the module as one of the best of 
its kind.

Someone has to write a PEP. There must be developer support to review 
the code, api, and documentation. Author must allow changes. (The new 
ipaddress module has had changes to all three, including considerable 
doc expansion. Some were to make it accessible to beginners rather than 
only ip experts, others to make it conform to current 3.x stdlib 
standards and best practices. For instance, 2.x style list returns were 
changed to 3.x style iterator returns. )

There must be commitment for the author or substitute for maintenance.

> For a long term project I also need some "guarantee" that this
> functionality will exist in future.

That is the point of the last requirement.
>
> So, is there a (formal) procedure for such a request or for initiating
> some sort of vote on it?

'voting' is fuzzy. Community support. Some support from developers. Best 
no strong opposition from a senior core developer, or at least more that 
one. Final decision is always by GvR, but he often delegates decisions 
to other developers, especially in an area of his non-expertise.

> I know there is a "Benevolent Dictator" for Python.
> Should I try to contact him personally?

No. If there is author and community support, the next step is a PEP or 
discussion on python-ideas list (which Guido reads even if he does not 
write much).

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy