[SciPy-User] Central File Exchange for Scipy

Wed Apr 20 02:30:50 EDT 2011

Hi

On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 01:08, Jason Grout <jason-sage at creativetrax.com>wrote:

> On 4/19/11 4:25 PM, Pauli Virtanen wrote:
> > On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:27:40 -0500, Jason Grout wrote:
> >> On 4/19/11 2:00 PM, Pauli Virtanen wrote:
> >>> Since a DVCS would not be exposed to the outside of the application,
> >>
> >> I think it would be really nice if the DVCS was exposed to the extent
> >> that someone could git/hg clone their snippet/package repository and
> >> move it to github/bitbucket once it became a bigger project.  On the
> >> other hand, I can imagine some people wanting to work locally with their
> >> package repository and then push to the server.  I don't think we need
> >> to do a gitorious/github/bitbucket rewrite, but having a way to get your
> >> repository off the server or push to the server would make it much
> >> easier to transition projects that grow larger.
> >
> > I think we have a slightly different ideas of what we are trying to make.
> > Maybe it would be useful to try to clear up the aim before going to
> > nitty-gritty :)
> >
> > My idea was to get something like Wikipedia or ohloh.net centered on
> > scientific Python software. So the focus would be mainly on "released"
> > software, rather than being a platform for software development, such as
> > Sourceforce, Gitorius, or Gists.
> >
> > Allowing file and cookbook page hosting would then be just a side
> > feature, just for convenience for the people who are too lazy to learn
> > how to use bitbucket and other tools properly. In this view, use of DVCS
> > is out of scope. Joint development would be diverted to the "traditional"
> > channels when possible --- direct communication with the original
> > authors, or whatever community site they use to share their work.
> >
> > Whether this is an useful target, is of course up to debate.
>
>
> Ah, you're right---I see now we may have different aims.  My original
> idea was for a project somewhere in between pastebin/gist and github in
> functionality, but also having the tagging and comments features that
> you're proposing.  Add to that a way to execute snippets, like
> http://python.codepad.org/ or the Sage notebook.

Did you have a look at http://aciresnippets.wordpress.com/? Although it does
not do exactly what you want, it is very close.
It's not a website for example, but a desktop program (acire) that interacts
with a version controlled snippets repository.

Maybe you could use the underlying DVCS controlled python-snippets (
http://aciresnippets.wordpress.com/contribute/) and just add a new category
(Sage, scipy, ...) and build a website that interacts with these snippets.
It might remove some of your work and additionally combine the work of a
similar project with yours?

>  With Sage interacts,
> executing the snippets of code would allow a user to play with sliders
> and buttons to interact with Sage/Python without having to log in to a
> web notebook.
>
> So I had envisioned much more of an active development site for small
> chunks of code, rather than a repository of pointers to packages
> developed on more heavyweight development sites.
>
>
> >> 1. Hosted software-Code submitted by people directly to this site.
> >> Edited by the original submitters solely.
> >>
> >> - It would make sense to allow multiple people to commit to a package,
> >> if it's easy.  If it's not, then I suppose we encourage projects that
> >> need more group-aware tools to use github or bitbucket or something and
> >> instead just link to their repository.
> >>
> >> Having a very simple "forking" feature would also be nice.
> >
> > My view would be that we only want more or less "finished" works to
> > appear there. If so, the catalog does not really need features related to
> > software development --- except maybe a link pointing to where the
> > development is ongoing.
>
> So when you say "Hosted software", are you thinking of a PyPi type of
> site, where the release tarball might be hosted on the site, rather than
> the development repository?
>
>
> >
> >> 2. Pointers to externally hosted packages, hosted on PyPi, github,
> >> bitbucket, someone's homepage, etc.  Editable by anyone.
> >>
> >> - Editable by anyone worries me---these are like the grown-up versions
> >> of (1), so it makes sense that the original submitter is the one to
> >> update these.
> >
> > Being editable by anyone makes sense if you think of this part as a
> > Wikipedia/ohloh.net of scientific Python software.
> >
> > The main issue here is that it would be useful for other people to be
> > able to also add links to projects you aren't an author of, improve
> > incomplete or terse descriptions, etc.  Note that these type-2 projects
> > do not have any hosted code.
> >
> > The criticism on enabling vandalism and spam is a valid one. Dealing with
> > it requires an adequate reversion&  change monitoring UI, and enough
> > manpower. As a middle way, the changes could of course be moderated
> > manually, so that they appear only after approved by a group of editors
> > (and/or the original submitter).
> >
> > But in any case, retaining the ability for anyone (registered) to submit
> > corrections to these catalog entries seems quite useful to me.
>
>
> I see.  Your approach makes sense, especially with moderation and/or
> easily reverted edits.
>
>
> >
> >> 3. Short code snippets and code examples.  Public domain and editable by
> >> anyone.
> >>
> >> - Sounds good, though I'm ambivalent about whether these should be
> >> wiki-style or gist-style (e.g., editable by anyone, or forkable by
> >> anyone).
> >
> > The aim with these "snippets" was mainly to replace what's currently in
> > scipy.org/Cookbook, rather than to build a branded competitor to Gist or
> > similar services. Wiki-style seems like a useful choice here to me (and
> > my calling them "snippets" was a bad choice of words --- they're not
> > really the same).
> >
> > The aim that I had in mind would be more to get an organized collection
> > of useful recipes with explanations how things work, rather than a
> > collection of miscellaneous code snippets "owned" by different people.
> > Wikipedia vs. Knol...
>
>
> Your explanation clears up a lot of confusion.  Thanks.  As I said, I'm
> not sure which style is best for the use-cases I have in mind
> (development/hosting of small educational snippets of code).  It may be
> that the best approach for me is to point people to gist to do their
> development if they want to have forking, DVCS, etc., but then they
> should copy their code for the snippet website (or maybe even better,
> just give the gist and we can retrieve the code via the gist API).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jason
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