I agree with your sentiments here, Python could use help with funding and this would benefit not only the PSF but the extended community as well.
Right now, the Python language is governed by volunteer maintainers and a steering council. Because these people are volunteers who can't give 100% of their attention to Python development, there's always a backlog on tasks relating to Python.
The PSF recently created a full time "Developer in Residence" role and another Project Manager role to address some of the problems that are caused by not having full time employees working on issues in CPython and Pip. Having full time paid employees goes a long way in improving the quality of the language.
The PSF was only able to do this because of funding from sponsors such as Google and Bloomberg. If the PSF had more funding, they'd be able to hire more people to work on Python to improve it and ship new features faster.
On the community aspect, there's an article on the same subject published by Divio that's worth reading. The long and short of that article is that funding community initiatives does make business sense because organisations can use events to recruit talented people who attend the events and that sponsoring community events helps improve the quality of software and community that these organisations depend on.
Thanks for writing this up, good post!
I agree with your sentiments here, Python could use help with funding and this would benefit not only the PSF but the extended community as well.
Right now, the Python language is governed by volunteer maintainers and a steering council. Because these people are volunteers who can't give 100% of their attention to Python development, there's always a backlog on tasks relating to Python.
The PSF recently created a full time "Developer in Residence" role and another Project Manager role to address some of the problems that are caused by not having full time employees working on issues in CPython and Pip. Having full time paid employees goes a long way in improving the quality of the language.
The PSF was only able to do this because of funding from sponsors such as Google and Bloomberg. If the PSF had more funding, they'd be able to hire more people to work on Python to improve it and ship new features faster.
On the community aspect, there's an article on the same subject published by Divio that's worth reading. The long and short of that article is that funding community initiatives does make business sense because organisations can use events to recruit talented people who attend the events and that sponsoring community events helps improve the quality of software and community that these organisations depend on.
The article is here:
divio.com/blog/why-divio-supports-...
Thanks for this feedback -- Agreed on all fronts!