python_herd.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import urllib2, random
from xml.etree import ElementTree

# Turn an XML document into a string.
def fetch_document(my_url):
    return [l.strip() for l in urllib2.urlopen(my_url).readlines()]

def main():
    # Get the list of herds.
    url = 'https://api.gentoo.org/packages/herds.xml'

    # Fetch the XML document.
    document_as_list = fetch_document(url)

    # Turn it into a list.
    document_as_string = '\n'.join(document_as_list)

    # Parse the mother fucker.
    tree = ElementTree.fromstring(document_as_string)

    # We're only interested in the "herd" nodes.
    herds = tree.findall('herd')
    python_herd = []

    # Walk them.
    for herd in herds:
        # Get all children.
        children = herd.getchildren()
        # The 1st child contains the herd name.
        first_child = children[0]
        # Is it equal to 'python' ?
        if first_child.tag == 'name' and first_child.text == 'python':
            # Walk the list of maintainers.
            for child in children[3::]:
                # And fetch their email address.
                python_herd.append(child.getchildren()[0].text)

    # Shuffle that list around a bit (only 50 times :p).
    for r in range(0, 50):
        random.shuffle(python_herd)

    # Vote for the lead!
    lead = random.randint(0, len(python_herd))
    
    # Tada!
    print(python_herd[lead])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()