Yo. Yeah my (bit of) involvement is mostly around wanting to help guide the new ASGI ecosystem.
For example, I'd like to see Python's async frameworks building on ASGI middleware rather than all re-writing their own middleware APIs. That way we end up with lots of cross-framework compatible middleware implementations, and we're all working together much more coherently.
Similarly for test clients. We don't really need frameworks to all be building their own individual test clients to interact against their own interfaces, when we can instead build test clients to interface against ASGI, and then be able to use them against any ASGI framework.
That's part of what the Starlette project (which Responder uses) is all about: https://www.starlette.io/
(FWIW Starlette also composes all those bits and pieces into a framework in its own right)
> There are already a number of players doing exactly what GitHub does
There are folks delivering similar services, but nothing remotely of the same standard.
> there isn't that much that ties a project to GitHub
They don't need to have any stickyness if they continue to provide a service that's far superior to other's offerings.
New entrants will find it incredibly difficult to break through at this point because of the immense investment that'd be needed to rival GitHub's service, and the lack of achieving significant user base and income during that process.
> Something tells me that the "facebook for programmers" angle is essential to selling the dream here.
The network aspect doesn't really need to be their main selling point.
GitHub's value to development companies is dead simple: It's a more productive tool than anything else out there.
For example, I'd like to see Python's async frameworks building on ASGI middleware rather than all re-writing their own middleware APIs. That way we end up with lots of cross-framework compatible middleware implementations, and we're all working together much more coherently.
Similarly for test clients. We don't really need frameworks to all be building their own individual test clients to interact against their own interfaces, when we can instead build test clients to interface against ASGI, and then be able to use them against any ASGI framework.
That's part of what the Starlette project (which Responder uses) is all about: https://www.starlette.io/
(FWIW Starlette also composes all those bits and pieces into a framework in its own right)