Python post-Guido [LWN.net]

Python post-Guido

Posted Jul 17, 2018 20:08 UTC (Tue) by ju3Ceemi (subscriber, #102464)
In reply to: Python post-Guido by Tara_Li
Parent article: Python post-Guido

Indeed

Dictatorship is still the best "ruling" system for a "project", because it allows the few to do what is necessary for the most

It also enforce this guy's commitment, because he is taking a frontal responsability in decisions

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Python post-Guido

Posted Jul 17, 2018 21:12 UTC (Tue) by edomaur (subscriber, #14520) [Link] (2 responses)

Well, no.

For example, the Rust language project hasn't had a BDFL since when Graydon Hoare left. And now, it has various teams handling each a set of responsibilities : Core Team is the governance and direction of the project, Language Team is the language features design team, etc. ( https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/team.html )

It works, the language is not even as "designed by committee" as C++

And yes, there is also a CoC : https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/conduct.html

Python post-Guido

Posted Jul 18, 2018 14:40 UTC (Wed) by malefic (subscriber, #37306) [Link] (1 responses)

Rust also has a bunch of people working on it full-time, backed by a large corporation with a clear set of goals. It is not a community project in a sense Python is. It is also worth mentioning that, despite all the buzz, Rust is still a niche language compared to Python, and there are probably far fewer people suggesting various "syntax improvements" on the mailing lists.

I think that dictatorship is the only way to keep Python going off the rails. Whether it's a single BDFL or three doesn't really matter.

Python post-Guido

Posted Jul 19, 2018 5:09 UTC (Thu) by edomaur (subscriber, #14520) [Link]

" It is not a community project in a sense Python is."

And how does it even matter ? The decision process is completely open and Rust is not Java even if there are corporation backed contributors. And about the "niche language" aspect, that's true that the Rust community is (at least for the moment) smaller than the Python one, but Rust is quite young too. What I tried to communicate was that it just seems to work and that from the beginning they tried to follow a scalable approach to language design.

Their is not much example of bad "dictatorized" project still around, because they tend to die or to be forked. However, I realize that perhaps I misunderstood what you were meaning with "dictatorship" : are you, by this word, speaking about arbitration authority ? Like, the Debian Technical Committee, the LibreOffice Engineering Steering Committee, how the various project in Apache are managed and so on ? Having a unique Man having the role of a local god is not the most successful way of doing community but yes, there are some real high profile exceptions. And even then, in the case of Linux it's not a dictatorship anyway, it's more a "release managership" (imho)