On 12/28/2011 03:37 AM, Rick Johnson wrote:
My logic is this: """ Including an IDE in the stdlib may have been a bad idea (although i understand and support Guido's original vision for IDLE). But since we do have it, we need to either MAINTAIN the package or REMOVE it. We cannot just stick our heads in the sand and ignore the elephant in the chicken coop. It's bad enough to bloat ANY stdlib with seldom used modules, but i dare say, it's far worse to bloat a library with seldom used modules that are poorly maintained! Every module in Python's stdlib is a testament to the skill and professionalism of this community as a whole. When a module looks or works badly, we ALL look and work badly."""
AFAICS, Python has a pretty good reputation even outside Python community. I haven't seen anyone looks at Python badly because of IDLE.
It's no big secret to anyone in this community that both Tkinter and IDLE are the red headed step children of Pythons stdlib. Very few people speak kindly of either package. I believe GvR still believes in the merits of both packages (psst: batteries included!) but he finds himself at odds with the elite at pydev. Hmm, Maybe he DOES want to remove them but fears loosing face...FYI: Guido IS is the original author of both Tkinter and IDLE... it was HIS idea after all. However, it is high time to re-ignite the original vision and form these packages into something we can be proud of -- OR -- cut our losses and remove them forever.
I hope you're not attempting to put words into his mouth, what you think of Guido's ideas is not necessarily Guido's ideas.
In any case, IDLE is open source -- I don't know exactly what license it's under but I'd assume it's the same as Python -- and anyone in this list and outside this list -- including you -- can freely fork it and work on it to improve it. In case you haven't realised it, it is pretty much impossible for a large open source project to "die"; even if Guido decided to remove IDLE from the standard library, it's not unlikely that someone will fork it and maintain it as a third party application.
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