The 2018 Python Language Summit

Over the past three years, LWN and its readers have gotten a yearly treat in the form of coverage of the Python Language Summit; this year is no exception. The summit is a yearly gathering of around 40 or 50 developers from CPython, other Python implementations, and related projects. It is held on the first day of PyCon, which is two days before the main PyCon talk tracks begin. This year, the summit was held on May 9 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The summit consists of a dozen or so main "talks", which are usually more open-ended and discussion-oriented, rather than simply straight presentations, and a handful of lightning talks, all of which is meant to be crammed into five hours or so. As might be guessed, spillover is inevitable; this year it went three hours beyond its appointed slot. Topics ranged all over the Python landscape: development process issues, performance ideas, deprecations of various sorts, diversity in the development community, static typing, and more.

After four years of fez-enabled leadership for the summit, Larry Hastings and Barry Warsaw are handing that responsibility off to two new core developers for next year. Łukasz Langa and Mariatta Wijaya will be putting together the next summit. Hopefully LWN will be in Cleveland next year to report on the summit again. PyCon 2019 will be held May 1-9 at the Huntington Convention Center in downtown Cleveland, which is the same spiffy new venue as was used this year.

Here are the sessions:

• Subinterpreter support for Python: a way to have a better story for multicore scalability using an existing feature of the language.
• Modifying the Python object model: looking at changes to CPython data structures to increase the performance of the interpreter.
• A Gilectomy update: a status report on the effort to remove the GIL from CPython.
• Using GitHub Issues for Python: a discussion on moving from bugs.python.org to GitHub Issues.
• Shortening the Python release schedule: a discussion on possibly changing from an 18-month to a yearly cadence.
• Unplugging old batteries: should some older, unloved modules be removed from the standard library?
• Linux distributions and Python 2: the end of life for Python 2 is coming, what distributions are doing to prepare.
• Python static typing update: a look at where static typing is now and where it is headed for Python 3.7.
• Python virtual environments: a short session on virtual environments and ideas for other ways to isolate local installations.
• PEP 572 and decision-making in Python: a discussion of the controversy around PEP 572 and how to avoid the thread explosion that it caused in the future.
• Getting along in the Python community: trying to find ways to keep the mailing list welcoming even in the face of rudeness.
• Mentoring and diversity for Python: a discussion on how to increase the diversity of the core development team.

The group photo was taken by me using Kushal Das's camera:

[I would like to thank LWN's travel sponsor, the Linux Foundation, for supporting my travel to PyCon and the Python Language Summit.]