[Twisted-Python] What happens in Montréal… PyCon 2014 Sprint Report

[Glyph Lefkowitz]

On Apr 20, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Kevin Turner <keturn at keturn.net> wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
> I didn't attend PyCon or the accompanying sprints this year, but judging
> from the commit traffic, many of you did. And I want to know what you
> worked on! Partly so I can live vicariously through your experiences,
> but I know a lot of other people are curious too. Events like this are a
> great way to show our followers and sponsors what happens when a bunch
> of people have a chance to get together and focus on the project.
> 
> I've started a sprint report page on the wiki:
> https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/PyconSprint2014

Thanks for putting this there!

> Feel free to contribute directly to that page, or reply to this email
> (either on or off-list) and I'll see if I can summarize the responses.

Everybody else should really reply; I'm a little surprised to not see 

> For those of you who were at the sprints this year:
> 
> * Was this your first time at a development sprint?

Nope.

> * Was it your first time contributing to Twisted?

Not really, no.

> * What did you work on?

I worked primarily on TLS, particularly client-side TLS.  The relevant tickets are <https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/7098> and <https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/4888>; I just put 4888 into what I hope will be its final review, which is why it took me so long to get to replying here!

I also helped out a little with some questions on <https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/6750> which wsanchez and ralphm put through several review/response cycles and will, I hope, be ready to land shortly after 14.0.

> * Did you work on something outside Twisted core? I especially want to
> hear about these! For Twisted I can look at the commit logs, but if
> there was activity on related projects, I might not know where to look
> unless you tell me about it.

I worked on <https://github.com/hynek/pem>, and added chain-construction logic so you don't have to put your keys/certs/chain certs in any particular order.  I also put together <https://pip2014.com/> a little bit before the sprints and ended up discussing it there a fair amount.  I'm trying to participate a bit more in the wider ecosystem so that we don't have so much code locked up inside Twisted that people are not aware of.

> * Any other lasting impressions?

As usual, the sprints were amazing, and it was great to have so many people working on Twisted and moving things forward, many of which had been stuck or stalled for months.

> Is there something you'll do
> differently now as a result of some conversation or experience you had
> at PyCon?

I'm planning to stop working on TLS soon, I hope ;-).

> I know now that you're starting to get caught up on sleep and the
> poutine is leaving your system, you may have reservations about sharing
> certain things you worked on. Maybe you feel like it's not "ready" yet,
> or it feels out-of-place next to that ticket Glyph worked on where there
> were eight or nine thousand words in the ticket comments alone. Maybe
> some things that happen in Montréal really should stay in Montréal.

You should never feel like it's not "ready".  Any contribution is totally worthwhile!

> But if you had a good experience at the sprints, and it's something
> you'd encourage others to join next time they have the opportunity,
> please share!

Yes, please do!

> If you didn't have the experience you were hoping for, but you learned
> something that will make it better for next time, share that too.
> Whether it's something for the sprint organizers or something you wish
> you could tell your earlier self, help us make next time better.

This PyCon was a little weird in the way that we set up the space; it ended up being more old hands and fewer new people, since there weren't many opportunities to attract new folks wandering by to the project (since we were in a corner of the building and nobody ever wandered by).  That also meant that there was a bit less opportunity for cross-pollenation with other projects.  On the plus side, it meant that the sprint was pretty focused and we made a lot of progress on some very big, challenging issues that required a lot of continuous focused attention from advanced contributors.

We seem to alternate years, with every other year being very new-contributor focused, which is sort of okay, but I'd like to see a sprint with two halves, where one part of the room is onboarding new people and the other half is more advanced development.

Also, there should be some small incentive for people to stay for the entire duration of the sprints.  If PyCon itself doesn't do this, then perhaps we should.  The fact that people are gradually trickling out starting on the afternoon of the first day until almost nobody is left on the last day does lower the energy level just a little bit.

> Think nobody else wants to hear about the weird thing you were working
> on? Might there be a *small* chance? Like one-in-a-million? Then share
> that too. There are at least a million Python programmers out there.
> Even if your thing isn't "done," sometimes just knowing someone has
> _made an attempt_ is important.

Learning that someone has made an attempt is often the first step towards prompting someone _else_ to actually finish the work :).


-g
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