[Phoenix-pm] Python does support / Was: Re: Perl is an itch-free zone?

[Scott Walters]

Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 21:02:05 +0000
From: Scott Walters <scott at illogics.org>
To: perl5-porters at perl.org
Subject: Python does support / Was: Re: Perl is an itch-free zone?

> I don't think that Coro necessarily should go in (and the pre-requisite of
> "support" needs to be addressed as described in
> http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2006-06/msg00946.html )

I couldn't resist trying to dig up a partial answer to this question.  After
interviewing some Python people...

It looks like Guido still "gets off" on doing the bulk of the maintenance work.  
Some amount of money off of requiring licenses for derivitive works, where 
derivitive works includes bundling Python in an otherwise unrelated product.
And, reportedly, Python has very few bugs, "thanks to the clean source code".

It looks like the bulk of income for The Python Software Foundation comes 
from corporate and private sponsors, and PyCon.  Money is then used to fund 
grants:

http://www.python.org/psf/  -- complete with corporate sponsor badges which 
cost $2,000/year.

http://www.python.org/psf/grants/

It's reportedly extremely difficult to get *anything* into core.  Guido doesn't
generally let things in and tends to kick them out.  Heh.  That would make
support a lot easier, wouldn't it... the Jython and IronPython ports have 
their own maintainers and as such aren't supported as if they were official
ports.

Guido works at Google, and gets to use half of his time on random Python
chores:

http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=143947

Releases of Python generally emphasize core code clean up, rework, implementation 
switches for various components (reportedly, the VM was swapped out and then back
in at one point), etc.  This dominates Guido's work, even above new features.

Finally, bug reports and tracking go through SourceForge's bug tracker.

Here's the summary:

* Foundation, fundraisers, and grants, just like YAS
* More corporate sponsorship, both in monitary contribution and in hosting developers 
* Bug fixes relatively insigificant use of time
* Development is less user-centric and module-author-centric, and more Guido-centric 
* Legacy support a non-priority
* Guido empathizes very strongly with his brainchild, even after all this time

One thing I'm having a hard time getting answered is whether Guido dips into the
coffers.  For some reason, the Python people take offense at the question.  Heck.
I would dip into the coffers...  I'd roll nekkid in the coffers.  I'd skinnydip 
in the coffers!

Disclaimer:  This little essay is a mish mash of my conjecture and other people's
conjecture.  May have been processed in a fascility that also processes facts.

-scott