[stdlib-sig] Breaking out the stdlib

[Paul Moore]

2009/9/15 Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net>:
>
> Le mardi 15 septembre 2009 à 13:48 -0400, Collin Winter a écrit :
>>
>> The commonly-expressed idea behind the stdlib is that it represents
>> best-of-breed code: it should have an independent userbase first, it
>> should have proven itself in the wild before it is allowed into the
>> stdlib.
>
> Asking libraries to be proven in the wild sounds like a good idea, but
> it promotes disruptive changes (replacing a module with another one)
> rather than evolutionary changes.

Two points here:

1. In response to Collin - the idea that the stdlib is best of breed
is common, and commonly stated, but it is actually not always the
case. For example, wsgiref is not intended as a best of breed WSGI
implementation, but as a reference implementation. Similarly with
SimpleHTTPServer - it's there for "batteries included" rather than
because it is better than Apache :-)

2. Antoine's point is a very good one - the "proven in the wild"
principle really only applies to libraries providing entirely new
functionality (and maybe not even there). Where there's an overlap
with existing stdlib functionality, having the stdlib steal ideas from
competing 3rd party solutions is probably better. (Of course, if the
stdlib module has no maintainer, there's a problem...)

Paul.