On 12Jul2018 0958, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
I'd like to point out that the N-virate idea doesn't handle a key issue: once you have a N-virate, how do you evolve its composition according to the implication and motivation of its members - but also to remarks or frustation by non-virate contributors (especially new contributors who will feel there's a perpetual category they're locked out of)? Do you just wait for people to gently step down when required?
One of the important things we will have to do is define the scope of any long-term appointees. For example, saying "we have an N-virate that decides on PEPs" is very different from saying "we have an N-virate that decides on the PEP approver (formerly BDFL-delegates)". The latter does not necessarily lock anyone out from being a critical part of Python's future, but it does avoid endless arguments about selecting who is responsible with deciding.
I'm honestly not very sympathetic towards "locking out" new contributors from literally leading a project. As you say below, few of us can claim as long and as uninterrupted a presence in this project as Guido, but many of us can certainly claim more "right" to a say than some random person who probably ought to build a few of their own languages before deeming themselves worthy to significantly influence a well established one.
One key point about Guido is that not only he's the founder of the project, but he's been consistently be there all the time, with almost no interruptions. I don't think any of us can claim such an uninterrupted presence, neither in the past, nor in the long future.
This is the main reason for having more than one person be on the critical path for significant changes. It is easier to replace 33% of a group without losing continuity than to replace 100%.
For me, I would like the release manager to also take on some of the responsibility for new features in their releases. Perhaps holding one position in an N-virate for the current RM (who continue rotating every two releases) is a good way to keep things fresh?
Cheers, Steve _______________________________________________ python-committers mailing list python-committers@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-committers Code of Conduct: https://www.python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
