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

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

#641

Post by reirob »

Havoc wrote: post #485
sametmax wrote: post #84

As a personnal note, you could feel that guido was already in this mood for a while from the tone of the last year tickets and mails. It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody. I know i would have if our roles had been reversed in some exchanges we had. Good writers, comedians or directors know when to quit at the top their carreer. I think he is quitting before the situation was too taxing and that is wise…

>It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody. Like a certain other BDFL occasionally does?

Maybe this is the reason that the certain other BDFL is still in service? Maybe it's part of psycho-hygiene in order to be able to continue? I sincerely don't know - your question just triggered my experience when working in psychiatry and seeing how the staff was venting, talking and joking about patients - once the doors were closed. I was very shocked, was quite young, around 20 when serving - but one of the doctors, when she saw my shock, took me apart and explained that this behaviour, so shocking it might be when seeing it for the first time, is part of psycho-hygiene that allows the people to be able to continue to work and keep a certain distance.

Sure, it's not the same, but I am questioning myself, if for these roles, like the BDFLs we are talking about, it is not necessary to have a personal way that allows to handle all the pressure, still keeping being yourself, defending your vision of your life-work.

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

#642

Post by Delgan »

blake_himself wrote: post #615
bogomipz wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what a "loop-and-a-half" is in Python?

x = stuff while x: x = stuff

On the contrary, loop-and-a-half is intended to avoid repeating stuff outside and inside of the loop body.

    while true:
        x = stuff
        if not x:
            break

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

#643

Post by perfunctory »

fit2rule wrote: post #293
theandrewbailey wrote: post #85

Python was my first programming language, ~15 years ago. The bracket- and semicolon-free syntax is beautiful and approachable to this day. Python is my go-to for writing data format conversion scripts. I wrote a random sentence generator in Python 10 years ago that gave me and my friends hours of entertainment. Thanks, Guido, for the good times!

I can never get into Python and end up with as much passion as you. For me, its a very powerful and useful language - no doubt about it. But the aesthetics of a whitespace language just don't jive with my 30+ years of experience writing code. No matter how many times I try over the past few decades, I just can't get passionate about writing Python code. I know its power, and I totally grok its value to our industry -…

I used to have a similar aversion to significant whitespace having learned in compiler classes that space should be insignificant. Over time I learned to appreciate the significant indentation though and now I want a C frontend with similar syntax.

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

#644

Post by flukus »

IgorPartola wrote: post #617
Havoc wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody. Like a certain other BDFL occasionally does?

Don’t know why you are being downvoted. Linus’s tirades and diatribes are famous for how brutally personal they get. I still maintain that they are a waste of time and he would be a more effective leader if he limited his responses to “this is a bad idea” or “this isn’t done right” instead of writing pages long personal attacks on other members of the project.

Any example of being brutally personal? There's plenty where he attacks someone's work and mentions their position in the community but I don't think I've ever seen him get personal, like insulting their looks or background.

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

#645

Post by DanBC »

reirob wrote: post #641
Havoc wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody. Like a certain other BDFL occasionally does?

Maybe this is the reason that the certain other BDFL is still in service? Maybe it's part of psycho-hygiene in order to be able to continue? I sincerely don't know - your question just triggered my experience when working in psychiatry and seeing how the staff was venting, talking and joking about patients - once the doors were closed. I was very shocked, was quite young, around 20 when serving - but one of the docto…

I work in patient safety in English MH settings. The culture you describe is toxic, and I would have reported all of those HCPs to their trust (using the trust complaints process), to the CQC, and possibly to their professional registration bodies.

> is part of psycho-hygiene that allows the people to be able to continue to work and keep a certain distance.

It's also a culture of de-humanisation that allows abuse to continue unchecked. You find this culture in every patient safety scandal: winterborne view, mid-staffs, morcambe bay, cornwall, etc etc.

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

#646

Post by scandox »

mathgenius wrote: post #579
cutler wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

32,000 pages simultaneously - in 1995? Async has only recently been added to Python, no?

Using select: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Select_(Unix)

Doesn't select have a maximum of 1024 file descriptors it can handle at any one time? Or some such?

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

#647

Post by brisance »

gonzo wrote: post #584
mbreese wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most (all?) open source licenses have a clause disclaiming any implied warranty or fitness for a purpose. The example you cite of a doctor being required to provide emergency medical care I don’t think is quite accurate. In fact, doctors are often not covered by “Good Samaritan” laws and can be held liable if they do stop to help someone and something goes wrong. A layperson would not have that type of legal exposure…

It’s not accurate at all. In the U.S., a doctor has no affirmative duty to provide medical assistance to injured persons if they have not established a special relationship with the individual.

That’s why in my post I qualified that with “depending on your jurisdiction”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_to_rescue

Read the last part about the elderly man who died in a bank and no one offered assistance.

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

#648

Post by sonnyblarney »

znpy wrote: post #638
mindfulplay wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software construction shouldn't need this level of drama or comedy. It almost feels like hero worship.

This whole industry shouldn't need this level of drama or comedy.

Drama and comedy can be fun, and it's human, after all. Toxicity is not good.

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

#649

Post by FartyMcFarter »

flukus wrote: post #644
IgorPartola wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t know why you are being downvoted. Linus’s tirades and diatribes are famous for how brutally personal they get. I still maintain that they are a waste of time and he would be a more effective leader if he limited his responses to “this is a bad idea” or “this isn’t done right” instead of writing pages long personal attacks on other members of the project.

Any example of being brutally personal? There's plenty where he attacks someone's work and mentions their position in the community but I don't think I've ever seen him get personal, like insulting their looks or background.

https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/6/495

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

#650

Post by Doxin »

rabidrat wrote: post #356
patejam wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The indentation should be almost the same as any other language. Unless you have an aversion to consistent code-style. Python whitespace was only annoying for me years ago when it still had trouble handling tabs and spaces in the same file, and you would run into literally invisible bugs. I haven't run into that in a long time, though.

It's also basically impossible to cut-and-paste code from a web forum. Was that "else" from the inner or the outer "if"?

Make sure you copy the whitespace on the first line as well and then it's just a case of indent/dedenting the whole section of pasted code to match.
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