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Show HN: A pythonic wrapper over atd to schedule deletion of files/directories

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24 pointsdevnonymous6 comments

Cool, but "pythonic" and

    from expyre.helpers import *

don't go together.

Your comment made me check the repo. It has tests, good naming conventions, and a good program structure. It's actually better than other widely used python packages. Yet for some reason the import statement stood out for you. It would be more constructive to bring the point in a better manner. The comment:

- Publicly shames the library author. This is not acceptable. For all we know the import statement simply slipped unnoticed. The way to bring it up should have been a github issue or a pull request.

- Undermines the work of the library author by simply focusing on a simple issue that can be easily resolved. One of the biggest issues in open source projects is how we treat fellow programmers. Too often we forget that people write the code. We should take their emotions into consideration. Just like I'm not publicly scolding you. I believe that we should treat each other with kindness. You probably had a bad day. Or you posted without much thought. But imagine being the library author and seeing this as the only comment in the thread. In a board read by thousands of people. How would you feel?

I thought very hard about posting this because I don't want you or anyone to think that I'm calling you out. My aim is to make a point about the comment and how it undermines the effort and work of the library author. Not about you as a person. I hope you don't take it as harsh criticism.

You're 100% right. I should have dove more into the code like you did, instead of just reading the readme. Also could have submitted a PR to fix the minor issue. I reacted to0 quickly to a library described as "pythonic" (like libraries that call themselves "unopinionated", "minimalist", "elegant", "lightweight" when in fact they are anything but). I have enough open source projects of my own, I should have known better.

Yet for some reason the import statement stood out for you.

It's in the the example in the readme. That's a good place for things to stand out.

But yeah, the better response would have been an issue or pull request.

When does making an observation become 'public shaming' ? I do not think the threshold was met in OPs post.

Good point to bring up. The threshold varies from person to person. In my case, it was the act of posting a comment that focused on one line of code and stating it not being pythonic. Without offering an explanation of why it's not pythonic or offering samples. The line would pass the PEP 8 guidelines because it used a wildcard import when an explicit import statement is preferred. Rather than:

    from module import *

It should be:

    from module import Foo, Bar

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