Python's Steering Council Assesses the After-Guido Era (thenewstack.io) 21
47 of Python's core developers participated in this year's Core Development Sprint, according to this report — "but what's more important is the very real and necessary community building that seemed to have taken place..."
It's an especially critical time for Python, which switched to a steering council model in February of 2019, after Guido van Rossum had stepped down as the language's "benevolent dictator for life...." [During the Python Steering Council and Core Developer Q&A] core developer Ned Deily asked a question which had probably been on everyone's minds: how is the steering council experience working, now that van Rossum is no longer serving as the language's benevolent overseer? And core developer/councilmember Carol Willing was the first to respond.
"I've been involved in a lot of governance organizations, and I would say the Steering Council has been towards the top in terms of sticking to the agenda and being thoughtful and collaborative in how things are working." They meet every week for an hour — with a pre-set agenda — and "in general, I think it's working quite well. If there's anything I take away from it, it's I'm amazed that Guido was able to do this function as a single person for as long as he had been. Because it's a lot of work, even amongst five people...."
Core developer/councilmember Barry Warsaw agreed. "A couple of us have been on the Steering Council since its inception. And there was a lot of things that the governance PEPs didn't really cover. So we really had to figure out the process for a number of things. I couldn't be more happy to work with both the first year of Steering Council members, and this year of Steering Council members. I think everybody is doing this for the right reasons — because we love Python, and we love the Python community..."
Deily agreed with their assessments. "My impression is things are going really well, better than might be expected. I was very proud how we as a community met the challenge of coming up with a governance, kind of from scratch. And I think — I don't know for sure all of Guido's motivation for doing it, but I think in a lot of ways he did it the right way, just kind of forced the community to come up with things. And I think all in all that worked out really well...."
About 48 minutes in, there was a question from van Rossum himself about the issue tracker at Bugs.python.org (affectionately known as "BPO"). "So I'm desperately curious about the status of the BPO to GitHub migration." He paused, then asked delicately, "Uh, how much is the Steering Council willing to share of what they know, and how much do you actually know?"
Cannon responded, talking about the group hired to run it, and thanking the groups whose donations had funded it. And then Deily suggested van Rossum volunteer for the working group, "because it's going to affect all of us." van Rossum asked if it would be appropriate if he volunteered, everyone agreed, and he responded, "Okay, I'm game."
"I've been involved in a lot of governance organizations, and I would say the Steering Council has been towards the top in terms of sticking to the agenda and being thoughtful and collaborative in how things are working." They meet every week for an hour — with a pre-set agenda — and "in general, I think it's working quite well. If there's anything I take away from it, it's I'm amazed that Guido was able to do this function as a single person for as long as he had been. Because it's a lot of work, even amongst five people...."
Core developer/councilmember Barry Warsaw agreed. "A couple of us have been on the Steering Council since its inception. And there was a lot of things that the governance PEPs didn't really cover. So we really had to figure out the process for a number of things. I couldn't be more happy to work with both the first year of Steering Council members, and this year of Steering Council members. I think everybody is doing this for the right reasons — because we love Python, and we love the Python community..."
Deily agreed with their assessments. "My impression is things are going really well, better than might be expected. I was very proud how we as a community met the challenge of coming up with a governance, kind of from scratch. And I think — I don't know for sure all of Guido's motivation for doing it, but I think in a lot of ways he did it the right way, just kind of forced the community to come up with things. And I think all in all that worked out really well...."
About 48 minutes in, there was a question from van Rossum himself about the issue tracker at Bugs.python.org (affectionately known as "BPO"). "So I'm desperately curious about the status of the BPO to GitHub migration." He paused, then asked delicately, "Uh, how much is the Steering Council willing to share of what they know, and how much do you actually know?"
Cannon responded, talking about the group hired to run it, and thanking the groups whose donations had funded it. And then Deily suggested van Rossum volunteer for the working group, "because it's going to affect all of us." van Rossum asked if it would be appropriate if he volunteered, everyone agreed, and he responded, "Okay, I'm game."
His time is past (Score:5, Funny)
Too long has Guido been directing python. We *should* have someone more in tune with the our new, enlightened, socially aware world. I suggest a Guidette.
Re: His time is past (Score:1)
Hello there, my fellow sexist!
(Sorry, too realistic for my sarcasm detector.)
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Did you say ... sprint? (Score:2)
If yes, then I'm gonna assume Python is dead. Hasn't noticied it yet, still warm, but definitely dead, long live Python ...
Lol. It can be right as well as wrong (Score:2)
That sounds like something I would have said a few years ago.
It is funny.
I ended up on a team that did Scrum well. At first I was somewhat useful with the small team of more experienced programmers. The value really appeared when new people joined the team. We had a process in place for the *team*, for the *team* to get things done, so it wasn't just the luck of the draw if a particular programmer showed up with good process habits that happened to match the rest of the team.
Other systems might work about
Coincidence? (Score:2)
Python's Steering Council Assesses the After-Guido Era
And Tab [wikipedia.org] is being discontinued [beveragedaily.com] -- hmm ...
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, no! Code Monkey losing one of favorite beverages! May need to eat entire coffee cake this time before taking nap!
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Time for a dictator? (Score:2)
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They should be more worried about what a shitty language they're responsible for
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I'm not a coder but whitespace is dumb. It's finding its way into Linux config files now like netplan. One extra space in the config? Oh well fuck your network then.
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...One extra space in the config? Oh well fuck your network then.
I hate that Netplan was foisted on us SO badly ("us" being, those of use who use Ubuntu for Enterprise production work).
Guido's last act was one of appeasement/newspeak (Score:3, Interesting)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/w... [google.com]
It was all enough to get Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, involved. Van Rossum officially retired in July, leaving the community to fend for itself when it comes to governance, but the squabbles pulled him back in to lay down the law.
âoeIâ(TM)m closing this now,â he wrote. His final decision was to accept three of Stinnerâ(TM)s four requests. In his view, âoethe fourth one should not be merged because it reflects the underlying terminology of UNIX ptysâ.
And so it is decided that Python 3.8 will change the term âoeslaveâ to âoeworkerâ or âoehelperâ and âoemaster processâ to âoeparent processâ.
Just when I thought I was out (Score:2)
they pull me back in!
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The subject heading you chose would seem to suggest that you don't agree with how he chose to resolve the issue. Your exact objections, however, remain unclear...
Personally I found the debate ridiculous, being as we were talking about machinery, but, when push comes to pop, in the context of a programming language was it really that important? I suspect that for most programmers the answer to that is a resounding "no". So, if it means a great deal to some people, and is no big deal to most of those it affec
After Guido (Score:1)
After Guido, maybe rename if "before Microsoft" and then "during Microsoft" and perhaps their will be a "post Microsoft" well maybe.