[Twisted-Python] Specifications

[Jean-Paul Calderone]

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:09:38 -0000, glyph at divmod.com wrote:
>On 02:27 am, jml at mumak.net wrote:
>>I've seen a couple of specifications on the Twisted wiki referred to
>>in Twisted tickets. This is great. I'm all for specs, particularly
>>when they are there simply to help clarify ideas and provoke
>>discussion.
>
>>However, if we are going to have more than one spec, it'd be nice to
>>have a list of them somewhere. It would also be very helpful if specs
>>had some sort of status.
>
>>Launchpad provides something like this at
>>https://blueprints.launchpad.net/twisted.
>
>Frankly, I don't understand the point of specifications as such.  In my 
>worldview, the specification is simply a ticket's description.  The only 
>reason we'd need a separate "specifications" tracker as opposed to "tickets" 
>is that trac's support for attachments and statuses is somewhat weak.  The 
>only reason to use wiki pages rather than ticket descriptions is because 
>ticket descriptions are unversioned.  On the other hand, I have found that 
>the lack of discussion on wiki pages is an equally problematic feature.

Personally, I don't want discussion features for the things for which I have
been using specification wiki pages.  I can have discussions with people in
meatspace or on IRC.  I want the *outcome* of a discussion on the page.

>
>Twisted's existing list of tasks (trac tickets) is already completely 
>unmanageable due to the disparity between the number of people filing 
>tickets and the number of people triaging them.  I would definitely prefer 
>it if we did not start using another list of tasks (launchpad "blueprints", 
>launchpad tickets) until we have some way to manage what we already have.

Chris and I have been using wiki pages for this primarily as a shared work
space to hash out ideas.  None of the topics we've approached has actually
been implemented yet, so I'm not really sure what the next phase of this
looks like.  However, I would expect that once there is some agreement about
a particular specification, whatever necessary tickets will be created and
they will live out the normal ticket life cycle.  Whether the specification
wiki pages live on past the implementation task isn't something I've thought
a lot about.  Of the top of my head, I don't see any reason for them to, but
I also can't think of too many compelling reasons to delete them, either.

To respond to one of jml's points, though, here is a list of the
specifications which currently exist:

  http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/TitleIndex

Just search for "Specification" ;)

In response to the 

Jean-Paul