“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

Post by joshuamorton » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 6:16 PM UTC

bluecalm wrote: post #146

js2 wrote: post #27

Background ("PEP 572 and decision-making in Python"): https://lwn.net/Articles/757713/

Well, when he is dealing with arguments as silly as "but we will confuse = with ==) it's not a surprise he is tired and had enough. I just wish he had pushed through C style assignment before retiring. New syntax is ugly and introduces a new operator which basically does the same thing. When I've seen this PEP for the first time I thought he lost his touch after so many fantastic design decisions throughout the years…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 6:17 PM UTC

kamyarg wrote: post #2

It is sad but needs to happen with every BDFL, I really like the tone of the email and I am sure the python core devs would figure out something. :) Finally, Guido if you are reading this, thanks for everything you have done for the language and especially the community behind it. I partly owe loving what I do to you. Hope taking this break would help you be happier.

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 6:18 PM UTC

jnwatson wrote: post #44

symmitchry wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused though, by his feelings here. Why did he feel the need to "fight so hard for a PEP" if it was so controversial, and everyone was outraged? I do understand people's points about "the age of outrage" and "internet 2018" but still: the PEP wasn't generally accepted as being a fantastic improvement, so why did he feel the need to fight so hard for it?

It was controversial syntax, inline assignment-as-expression. There's always a tension between "keep it simple stupid" and "let's make it better", especially when a large user demographic of Python are non-professional-programmers. Interestingly, C++ is going through the same process, with lots of great ideas being proposed, but the sum total of them being an even more complicated language (on top of what is probably…

Post by jpfed » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 6:20 PM UTC

_wmd wrote: post #183

jpfed wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't it nice that you could reply to this comment over the web rather than physically going to the commenter and telling them what you thought? Boy, this technology sure gave a helpful assist to the social problem of communication.

OP wants code to legislate trust problems within a small, closed group, however no amount of code can ever solve trust problems within a small, closed group. No amount of code thrown at people mismanaging their relationship with other people will ever help people more effectively manage their relationship with those people -- it just creates artificial obstacles that further exacerbate or obscure the problem. There i…

Post by passiveincomelg » Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

jstarfish wrote: post #208

Alex3917 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "customer is always right" mentality does quite a bit of harm to OSS support. It goes both ways. All too often people promote their new library on HN and Reddit, wait until a bunch of people are using it as a dependency, and then abandon it without even telling anyone whether or not it’s abandoned.

Not using toy libraries for production systems is a lesson every young developer learns early on in their career.