Why do we need ipython-contrib group?

[tkf]

Hi, thanks for the invitation at tkf/emacs-ipython-notebook#97. I read the README but I am not sure about the purpose of this group. To me it sounds like Python developers asking people to host their Python modules under github.com/python-contrib/. Why is a list of related projects in the IPython manual not enough?

(I quickly search the ML but I couldn't find the discussion.)

[Carreau]

There are no discussion on the ML, this is a personal initiative.

From my perspective, the wiki and the manual are not visible enough,
both from the users and the developer, we often tell people that write to the ML
to register their extension on the wiki because they do not know about it.

So my hope would be to make it natural when you have an IPython project
to think of adding it here, or look if something already exist.

From a user only point of view, I would have like to also 'mirror' repository (like https://github.com/mirrors)
but it requires to contact an human at github every time.

It is also easier to have multiple maintainer for project under an organisation as you can create team
that have read/write/administrative access to any subset of the organisation. So IMHO for some project
it will be easier to manage than have an user be the only maintainer of a repo.

So I'm just pinging a few people that have project to know what are their thought on it, and if they wish to participate,
this does not mean only by moving their repo here of course.
I also think that having a community driven repository will make newcomers less shy about participating.

Does it make more sens ?

[tkf]

I think one of the reason why people don't know the place for extensions is that it's not linked from ipython.org or top page of the documentation. I'd suggest to add link to the top page (in the sentence, top bar and side bar) and documentation top page.

Also, I don't understand why you think github is more visible than documentation or wiki. Github is for developers so I think users read documentation and wiki first. Furthermore, you can't organize how the extensions are listed in github organization page. If you put it in wiki or documentation, you can organize into several sections to make searching easier.

[Carreau]

I find that wiki is not updated, neither organized, nothing prevent from writing a wiki or a page in the doc.
Also, we could have an IPython-contrib github pages.

I just feel like lots of small extension are lost because they where on some file somewhere, or just posted on the ML without beeing both registed and archived anywhere.

I agree to the fact that github is for dev. I don't find their wiki much more accessible than the rest of github itself.

In the end what would be great to have some kind of small package manager, but it's a long way to it.

[tkf]

I find that wiki is not updated, neither organized

My point is that the page for extensions is not visible from IPython top page and document page. How about adding it and see what happens?

I think asking people for moving their projects to a github organization introduces more resistance than asking people to add their project to add it to a wiki page or document page. Managing github organization requires human power. For example, if I want to split my project into two new ones, I need to ask you to add repository and wait one day or more. Probably you can do something about that case by managing permission of my account or something, but I guess there are some operations that requires your permission. At least, registering to the group requires your work.

In the end what would be great to have some kind of small package manager, but it's a long way to it.

I think it's PyPI. The problem is that it's bit difficult to list only IPython related projects.

BTW, can't we have classifiers such as

Topic :: Software Development :: Interpreters :: IPython :: Extensions

so that we have a page in PyPI listing all extensions. I don't know who adds a topic to the package classifiers. Can we add it as we like?

[tkf]

Or "Framework :: IPython" to make it shorter. I found "Framework :: IDLE".

[Carreau]

My point is that the page for extensions is not visible from IPython top page and document page. How about adding it and see what happens?

I would really love to have something not governed by IPython core dev.

I think it's PyPI. The problem is that it's bit difficult to list only IPython related projects.

But many plugin will need javascript files to be installed on some IPython specific path...

[tkf]

I would really love to have something not governed by IPython core dev.

I mean link to the page that can be edited by anyone, not listing extensions in top page or document page.

But many plugin will need javascript files to be installed on some IPython specific path...

Python module can have data files. So I think IPython should be able to read files from there.

[damianavila]

I want to add some thought here...

I really like the idea of IPython-contrib. I think this place can be a very valuable one. Specially for little projects which are IPython-dependent. Extension, and even other projects, needs IPython. We can not think about them without IPython. So, I would be great to have it together, they can get benefit each one from the others. They can be easily found, not only by the users, also (and most importantly) by others developers which can get together and cooperate in the development of the currently IPython-related applications and also develop new ones...
The time spent to manage this project under one Organization is well time invested in the development of a new user&developers community that can be very prolific at building great application (including extension and other IPython-related developments) over a solid core...
I think that a lot of developers with small projects can see this place as a natural place for host their developments in one environment, with one community giving them support and help in their first steps in the IPython world.

Thanks for bring the discussion.

Cheers.