W3C Recommendations Have Halved Since 2015, While Python's Accepted-PEP Backlog Is Mostly Packaging

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A pre-registered analysis of W3C specifications found that new Recommendations fell from an average of about 15 per year in 2015-2019 to about 7 per year in 2021-2025. The author attributes this partly to fewer specifications starting out, though that explanation was not a pre-registered prediction and remains exploratory. A separate check of Python Enhancement Proposals found that only 2.8% of accepted Standards Track PEPs remained stuck in Accepted status, contrary to a prediction of over 10%. The few remaining cases are concentrated in packaging PEPs, where 17% are still Accepted compared with 0.4% of other PEPs. A packaging reviewer objected to marking one such PEP Final until tools supported it, which the author describes as a community convention rather than general neglect.

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