I usually start a project to scratch my own itch. In certain cases, other people have the same itches, and we can do something great together.

I am the creator and main contributor of Pint, a pure python package to operate and manipulate physical quantities in Python that is widely used in the scientific community.

For a long a time I was the maintainer of PyVISA: A Python package with bindings to the "Virtual Instrument Software Architecture" VISA library, in order to control measurement devices and test equipment via GPIB, RS232, or USB. I completely redesigned its architecture to make it more maintainable and robust. When the project was mature enough and other contributors were ready to step in, I created the PyVISA GitHub organization and migrated the project there.