Astropy Proposals for Enhancements

APEs are used to address non-trivial enhancements that require much discussion and thought. This is intended to mirror the long-standing Python Enhancement Proposal process, but generally not quite as formally. Normally a proposal goes through various phases of consideration. Normally discussion is expected to take place using existing mechanisms (astropy-dev, github, hangouts, etc), and eventually a decision is made regarding whether the proposal should be accepted, rejected, or modified.

It is important to note that there is not much point to making proposals unless someone or some group has signed up to implement it if it is accepted (normally this would involve the author or authors of the APE). Just issuing an APE in order to spur others to do work is not generally going to be received well. Generally, an implementation is expected before an APE can be considered fully accepted. For proposals that require extensive work that few are willing to perform without some assurance it will be accepted, we can issue provisional acceptance. For serious consideration it is usually good to show that detailed technical aspects have been played with in real code rather (even if it isn't a complete implementation).

APEs are stored in the astropy/astropy-APEs repository. Those currently undergoing discussion are pull requests in that repository. If you want to create a new APE, familiarize yourself with the process in APE1, and then use the APE template from the repository and issue a Pull Request to astropy/astropy-APEs with your new APE.

• APE1: APE Purpose and Guidelines