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Proposals for new Python features are collected in documents called PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals). There's a master list at http://www.python.org/dev/peps/ which links to (for example):

It's great that proposals are published publicly for the community to read. However, how is the community supposed to participate? The pages don't allow comments.

It strikes me as weird the Python developers would make proposals public then deliberately exclude the community from discussion. Have I missed something?

In particular, I'd like to read other people's comments on http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0453/ and add my own.

For comparison, Ruby feature proposals are made as posts to its bug tracker. You can read everyone's comments below, and add your own (after making an account)

Nodejs feature requests are plain GitHub issues, which is probably the most inclusive. It's very easy to join GitHub and post a comment.

Colonel Panic
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    related: [Why do some big projects, like Git and Debian, only use a mailing list and not an issue tracker?](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/191961/31260) – gnat Feb 05 '14 at 16:28

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Python PEPs are discussed on the Python-Dev mailinglist, which anyone is free to join.

There is a Gmane gateway for web reading too.

I do advice you to study the Python developer's guide before wading into any discussions, though. The contained FAQ has some entries on communication that cover new feature discussions as well.

The Python community formed in the early 1990, and the community established itself around mailinglists (built on the now-venerable Mailman list manager) and newsgroups (comp.lang.python is gatewayed to the python@mail.python.org list), and the model has worked well enough for this community.

Martijn Pieters
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  • Hi Martijn. "It's on a mailing list" what does that mean--how would I post a reply to http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0453/ -- could you give a worked example? I have a Gmail address, if that helps. – Colonel Panic Feb 05 '14 at 16:08
  • @ColonelPanic: You write an email to the list with a subject that reflects the PEP you are commenting on. Do try to see what other discussion has already taken place. – Martijn Pieters Feb 05 '14 at 16:08
  • @ColonelPanic: A quick search on the Gmane mirror returns http://search.gmane.org/?query=pep+453&group=gmane.comp.python.devel. Sample thread at http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.devel/142069/focus=142159 – Martijn Pieters Feb 05 '14 at 16:09
  • Is it possible to read all the comments on one page in chronological order? The results you link are individual replies to replies to replies eg. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.devel/142159/match=pep+453 . It's incredibly hard to follow the conversation that way. – Colonel Panic Feb 05 '14 at 16:13
  • Also, how can I comment from Gmail? Do I need to use a special subject header so my comment shows up on the right page? – Colonel Panic Feb 05 '14 at 16:15
  • @ColonelPanic: No, you just send email to the `python-dev@python.org` list. It's a mailinglist, you send email to it. :-) If you use the same subject header it'll work. – Martijn Pieters Feb 05 '14 at 16:15
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    @ColonelPanic: you may want to subscribe to the list too, so you see all responses that are just sent to the list and not cc-ed to you as well. – Martijn Pieters Feb 05 '14 at 16:17
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    @ColonelPanic: As for chronological views of the mail archives, you could look through the [Mailman archive copy](https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/), but the interface is a little more.. static and cumbersome as there is no search. This is all 1990s tech. – Martijn Pieters Feb 05 '14 at 16:18
  • Okay thanks, I'll try that. I've used mailing lists before, but didn't know how to reply to threads created before I joined. – Colonel Panic Feb 05 '14 at 16:19