Gotta Badge ‘Em All: Parselmouth

Parselmouth: What is it?

Parselmouth Badge, for Python 3 porting
“You can speak Python and helped with porting stuff to Python 3.”

The Parselmouth badge is categorized as a “Miscellaneous Badge” and was defined in this Trac ticket. But what’s the real scoop behind the Parselmouth badge?

In short, Parselmouth is awarded to Fedora contributors who assist in porting Python 2 packages in Fedora to Python 3. As of present date, the current version of Fedora (Fedora 23) defaults to using Python 3 for new installs. While Python 2 is easily installed, there are still a large number of packages that are not up to date to using the latest version of the language. As recognized by the developers of the programming language and the countless that use it, Python 3 is the future, and it is important that Fedora helps lead the way towards making Python 3 the standard.

How do I earn Parselmouth?

Parselmouth is a manually-awarded badge by some of the Python maintainers in Fedora. In order to earn the Parselmouth badge, you will need to help port packages and be noticed by the maintainers.

“But how can I do that?!”

There are a number of ways you can earn the badge. Periodically, there are Fedora Activity Days (FAD) which are dedicated days or sometimes weekends where contributors work together during coordinated times over IRC to help make progress on porting packages. Just recently, there was a Python 3 Porting FAD that successfully helped port many more packages to Python 3. One way to earn this badge in the future is by watching for any more announcements of a Python 3 Porting FAD on the Community Blog.

Alternatively, jump into the #fedora-python IRC channel on Freenode and introduce yourself to the channel. Explain that you want to help port packages, and someone will be able to help guide and direct you to where you can get started.

The Parselmouth tl;dr

  1. Awarded to contributors who help port Python 2 packages in Fedora to Python 3
  2. Typically awarded during Fedora Activity Days for Python porting
  3. Can be earned by helping port packages any time year-round

Drop a line