D Enhancment proposals

[Bill Baxter]

Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For Email) wrote:
> Bill Baxter wrote:
>> Derek Parnell wrote:
>>> On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:05:29 -0700, Andrei Alexandrescu (See Website For
>>> Email) wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> I wish it wasn't so hard to get a simple straight answer from the 
>>> experts.
>>
>> I think discussion would much improved if big changes like this 
>> actually came with a detailed proposal on a website somewhere that 
>> people could refer to and which would actually be updated to reflect 
>> vague points clarified during discussion.  As it is, there are a lot 
>> of points that have been clarified, and questions answered, but 
>> they're strewn across 100 different posts.  I'm pretty lost.  I gave 
>> up trying to follow this myself.  I'm hoping you'll figure it out and 
>> post something coherent. :-)
>>
>> On the bright side, thanks to Andrei, at least there *is* an open 
>> discussion going on about the feature before it just shows up in the 
>> change log as a done deal.
> 
> I agree. (How couldn't I? Flattery goes a long way :o).)
> 
> Maybe we could imitate what other languages do, e.g. Perl has the famous 
> "apocalypses" that describe each language feature in detail.

I was thinking more of Python's PEPs, but yeh, same deal.  I like PEPs 
in that anyone can submit one, get it assigned an offical number.   As 
opposed to Larry's stone tablets brought down from the mountain top for 
the rest of us to ooh and ahh over.  Python's way is a little more 
egalitarian.

Semi-official Enhancement Proposals are also a good way to handle the 
many repeated requests for 'feature X'.   Just tell 'em -- great idea, 
now go write a DEP for it.  If they actually do it, then great.  Next 
time someone asks for the feature you just point 'em to the previous DEP 
and the BFD ruling on it.

My impression is that PEPs get weighted somehow based on how fleshed-out 
they are.  For instance it seems a majority of PEPs (at least the ones 
I've read) come complete with prototype implementations.  So PEP is more 
than just a vague wish like "Please implement Java-style serialization". 
  It has to contain the nitty gritty details.

--bb