This will be an article demystifying Python Sprints. We hope to publish it in a major journal in time to contribute to the PyCon 2008 publicity effort and to encourage first-time sprinters to take part.
Interview participants:
CD: Catherine Devlin : never sprinted; interviewer
BC: Brett Cannon : Python core sprint coach/participant
JB: Jim Baker : Jython sprint co-coach/participant and first-time PyCon sprinter
Begin interview
*Development sprints gather small groups of people for bursts of face-to-face cooperation to advance software projects. They're increasing in popularity in the open-source world, but many developers still don't know whether or how they could take part. We speak with experienced and rookie sprinters to get a better feel for the phenomenon.*
CD: Brett and Jim, can you start by telling us a little about your backgrounds?
JB: I've been all over the place: academia (I'm an ABD in CS), IT consulting, software development, software startups, and recently open source as a community - and not just a place to get generously licensed quality software. As a result of asking some questions, I found myself leading the Boulder Python Users Group (FrontRangePythoneers), which lead into sprinting. What prompted that was the Arlington Python User Group was sprinting, that looked quite interesting, and that eventually lead to our first sprint on Django. We have had several since then (BoulderSprint). The last was participating in the world-wide Django sprint. Our goal remains the same: everyone who walks in learns the project, and we get some usable contribution out of that day.
Finally, 12 years ago a friend suggested I use Python. About 4 years ago, I finally heeded his advice. It became increasingly clear to me that writing software is many things. It includes not only communicating to the computer, it's also about communicating that intent to other developers. Python excels in combining code clarity with code conciseness. If you think about that, these are virtues especially valuable in a peer activity like sprinting.
end interview
Possible questions (depending on how the "flow" actually goes:
What is sprinting?
What sort of tasks are accomplished at a sprint? How do sprints benefit the project? The community? The participants?
Where do sprints take place?
What does a sprint in action look like?
What is required of a sprinter?
First-time sprinters, how did you decide to sprint? Were you nervous about sprinting? What surprised you about the experience? How has sprinting effected you as a programmer? What would you say to others who've never sprinted?