Is suds still maintained?

[Dave Rawks]

I just hit a bug today while writing some threaded code that uses suds
and I see that a bug report was already filed
(https://fedorahosted.org/suds/ticket/331) over a year ago. The .41
release looks to be about 8 months over due; is it time to migrate my
project to something else?

-Dave

[Veres-Szentkiralyi Andras]

2011. augusztus 12. péntek 01:24:13 dátummal Dave Rawks ezt írta:
>  I just hit a bug today while writing some threaded code that uses
> suds
>  and I see that a bug report was already filed
>  (https://fedorahosted.org/suds/ticket/331) over a year ago. The .41
>  release looks to be about 8 months over due; is it time to migrate my
>  project to something else? 
I also submitted an enhancement patch in May to this list, and got no answer. 
On 22nd July, in a thread about reusing cached WSDLs and XSDs, Michael 
Sommerville wrote "I'm not sure what is going to happen to suds in the longer 
term. Perhaps it is time to create a public fork?" and I tend to agree with 
him.
-- 
Regards,
András Veres-Szentkirályi

[Joshua J. Kugler]

On Friday, August 12, 2011, Veres-Szentkiralyi Andras elucidated thus:
>  2011. augusztus 12. péntek 01:24:13 dátummal Dave Rawks ezt írta:
>  > I just hit a bug today while writing some threaded code that uses
>  > suds and I see that a bug report was already filed
>  > (https://fedorahosted.org/suds/ticket/331) over a year ago. The .41
>  > release looks to be about 8 months over due; is it time to migrate
>  > my project to something else?
>  
>  I also submitted an enhancement patch in May to this list, and got no
>  answer. On 22nd July, in a thread about reusing cached WSDLs and
>  XSDs, Michael Sommerville wrote "I'm not sure what is going to
>  happen to suds in the longer term. Perhaps it is time to create a
>  public fork?" and I tend to agree with him. 
I'm not sure there is a need for a fork, if Jeff Ortel (the current 
maintainer) would be willing to pass off maintainter-ship.  He has 
interest in Suds, and can often be hit up for help on #suds, but his 
projects have taken him elsewhere these days.

A "problem" with a project such as this is that SOAP is such an arcane 
and complex standard (with many incompatible implementations) that 
effectively steering a project such as this can be maddening.  If we do 
move maintainership "off of" Jeff, I would suggest two things:

1) The new project lead(s) is/are near-experts (the nearer the better) 
in SOAP, and very strong Python chops would be needed as well, as it's a 
big, complex project.  Knowledge of XML standards would be needed too.

2) One of the first priorities would be to write a comprehensive test 
suite: not only with good code coverage, but with good standard coverage 
as well, as well as the incompatible corner cases of various 
implementaitons (that are known).  This is because fixing a corner case, 
if not done properly, can break other things.  I seem to remember at 
least one instance where Jeff rejected a patch because it broke 
something else in Suds, or shifted out of compliance, etc.

I know two things: 1) I would LOVE to see Suds get some attention, and 
2) I am not the person to do that as I know just enough SOAP/Suds/XML to 
consume my Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce services.  Actually, I 
don't even know enough to consume Salesforce servies, as I use Suds via 
the Saleforce Python Toolkit, which wraps Suds. :)

Jeff? Any comment on this.

j

-- 
Joshua Kugler
Part-Time System Admin/Programmer
http://www.eeinternet.com - Fairbanks, AK
PGP Key: http://pgp.mit.edu/  ID 0x73B13B6A