Abstract

    This MEP provides a boilerplate or sample template for creating
    your own plaintext MEPs.  In conjunction with the content
    guidelines in MEP 1 [1], this should make it easy for you to
    conform your own MEPs to the format outlined below.

    Note: if you are reading this MEP via the web, you should first
    grab the plaintext source of this MEP in order to complete the
    steps below.  DO NOT USE THE HTML FILE AS YOUR TEMPLATE!

    To get the source this (or any) MEP, look at the top of the html
    page and click on the link titled "MEP Source".

    If you would prefer to use lightweight markup in your MEP, please
    see MEP 12, "Sample reStructuredText MEP Template" [2].

Rationale

    MEP submissions come in a wide variety of forms, not all adhering
    to the format guidelines set forth below.  Use this template, in
    conjunction with the content guidelines in MEP 1, to ensure that
    your MEP submission won't get automatically rejected because of
    form.

How to Use This Template

    To use this template you must first decide whether your MEP is
    going to be an Informational or Standards Track MEP.  Most MEPs
    are Standards Track because they propose a new feature for the
    Python language or standard library.  When in doubt, read MEP 1
    for details or contact the MEP editors <peps@python.org>.

    Once you've decided which type of MEP yours is going to be, follow
    the directions below.

    - Make a copy of this file (.txt file, not HTML!) and perform the
      following edits.

    - Replace the "MEP: 9" header with "MEP: XXX" since you don't yet
      have a MEP number assignment.

    - Change the Title header to the title of your MEP.

    - Leave the Version and Last-Modified headers alone; we'll take
      care of those when we check your MEP into CVS.

    - Change the Author header to include your name, and optionally
      your email address.  Be sure to follow the format carefully:
      your name must appear first, and it must not be contained in
      parentheses.  Your email address may appear second (or it can be
      omitted) and if it appears, it must appear in angle brackets.
      It is okay to obfuscate your email address.

    - If there is a mailing list for discussion of your new feature,
      add a Discussions-To header right after the Author header.  You
      should not add a Discussions-To header if the mailing list to be
      used is either python-list@python.org or python-dev@python.org,
      or if discussions should be sent to you directly.  Most
      Informational MEPs don't have a Discussions-To header.

    - Change the Status header to "Draft".

    - For Standards Track MEPs, change the Type header to "Standards
      Track".

    - For Informational MEPs, change the Type header to
      "Informational".

    - For Standards Track MEPs, if your feature depends on the
      acceptance of some other currently in-development MEP, add a
      Requires header right after the Type header.  The value should
      be the MEP number of the MEP yours depends on.  Don't add this
      header if your dependent feature is described in a Final MEP.

    - Change the Created header to today's date.  Be sure to follow
      the format carefully: it must be in dd-mmm-yyyy format, where
      the mmm is the 3 English letter month abbreviation, e.g. one of
      Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.

    - For Standards Track MEPs, after the Created header, add a
      Python-Version header and set the value to the next planned
      version of Python, i.e. the one your new feature will hopefully
      make its first appearance in.  Do not use an alpha or beta
      release designation here.  Thus, if the last version of Python
      was 2.2 alpha 1 and you're hoping to get your new feature into
      Python 2.2, set the header to:

      Python-Version: 2.2

    - Leave Post-History alone for now; you'll add dates to this
      header each time you post your MEP to python-list@python.org or
      python-dev@python.org.  E.g. if you posted your MEP to the lists
      on August 14, 2001 and September 3, 2001, the Post-History
      header would look like:

      Post-History: 14-Aug-2001, 03-Sept-2001

      You must manually add new dates and check them in.  If you don't
      have check-in privileges, send your changes to the MEP editor.

    - Add a Replaces header if your MEP obsoletes an earlier MEP.  The
      value of this header is the number of the MEP that your new MEP
      is replacing.  Only add this header if the older MEP is in
      "final" form, i.e. is either Accepted, Final, or Rejected.  You
      aren't replacing an older open MEP if you're submitting a
      competing idea.

    - Now write your Abstract, Rationale, and other content for your
      MEP, replacing all this gobbledygook with your own text. Be sure
      to adhere to the format guidelines below, specifically on the
      prohibition of tab characters and the indentation requirements.

    - Update your References and Copyright section.  Usually you'll
      place your MEP into the public domain, in which case just leave
      the "Copyright" section alone.  Alternatively, you can use the
      Open Publication License[3], but public domain is still strongly
      preferred.

    - Leave the little Emacs turd at the end of this file alone,
      including the formfeed character ("^L", or \f).

    - Send your MEP submission to the MEP editors (peps@python.org),
      along with $100k in unmarked pennies.  (Just kidding, I wanted
      to see if you were still awake. :)

Plaintext MEP Formatting Requirements

    MEP headings must begin in column zero and the initial letter of
    each word must be capitalized as in book titles.  Acronyms should
    be in all capitals.  The body of each section must be indented 4
    spaces.  Code samples inside body sections should be indented a
    further 4 spaces, and other indentation can be used as required to
    make the text readable.  You must use two blank lines between the
    last line of a section's body and the next section heading.

    You must adhere to the Emacs convention of adding two spaces at
    the end of every sentence.  You should fill your paragraphs to
    column 70, but under no circumstances should your lines extend
    past column 79.  If your code samples spill over column 79, you
    should rewrite them.

    Tab characters must never appear in the document at all.  A MEP
    should include the standard Emacs stanza included by example at
    the bottom of this MEP.

    When referencing an external web page in the body of a MEP, you
    should include the title of the page in the text, with a
    footnote reference to the URL.  Do not include the URL in the body
    text of the MEP.  E.g.

        Refer to the Python Language web site [1] for more details.
        ...
        [1] http://www.python.org

    When referring to another MEP, include the MEP number in the body
    text, such as "MEP 1".  The title may optionally appear.  Add a
    footnote reference, a number in square brackets.  The footnote
    body should include the MEP's title and author.  It may optionally
    include the explicit URL on a separate line, but only in the
    References section.  Note that the pep2html.py script will
    calculate URLs automatically.  For example:

            ...
            Refer to MEP 1 [7] for more information about MEP style
            ...

        References

            [7] MEP 1, MEP Purpose and Guidelines, Warsaw, Hylton
                http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html

    If you decide to provide an explicit URL for a MEP, please use
    this as the URL template:

        http://www.python.org/peps/pep-xxxx.html

    MEP numbers in URLs must be padded with zeros from the left, so as
    to be exactly 4 characters wide, however MEP numbers in the text
    are never padded.

References

    [1] MEP 1, MEP Purpose and Guidelines, Duchier
        http://www.mozart-oz.org/meps/mep-0001.html

    [2] MEP 2, Sample reStructuredText MEP Template, Duchier
        http://www.mozart-oz.org/meps/mep-0001.html

    [3] http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/

Copyright

    This document has been placed in the public domain.

Votes

    Raphaël Collet     []
    Denys Duchier      []
    Seif Haridi        []
    Torbjörn Lager     []
    Konstantin Popov   []
    Camilo Rueda       []
    Christian Schulte  []
    Gert Smolka        []
    Peter Van Roy      []