Request to add trove classifier for the topic of Quantum Computing

[mhucka]

This is a request to add a new classifier for the topic of quantum computing.

The name of the classifier(s) you would like to add

Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Quantum Computing

Why do you want to add this classifier?

Currently, there is no good Trove classifier term to identify software for quantum computing. The existing term Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Physics is perhaps closest (because quantum mechanics is a subfield of physics), but it is not always appropriate to use this topic tag; in particular, software libraries and tools for quantum computing are not about physics – they are about, well, quantum computing.

For this reason, the introduction of a Trove classifier for quantum computing is the right approach.

Why is the proposed classifier notable?

Quantum computing has been in development since theoretical advances in quantum mechanics in the 1980's sparked the idea that properties at the quantum level could be leveraged for computation. The last decade has seen major commercial organizations (Google, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, among many) put tremendous resources into developing practical quantum computers. There is no question that quantum computing can work (there are many quantum computers today); the only question is when will the world see quantum computers with enough qubits (quantum bits) to be useful for practical purposes. On this front, Google this year has made landmark progress, clearly demonstrating the feasibility of techniques such as error correction to enable the creation of larger quantum computers.

The most popular language for quantum computing programming frameworks is Python. All of the major quantum programming SDKs today (of which, Cirq, Qiskit, PyQuil, and PennyLane are the most well-known) are based on Python.

On GitHub, which has a quantum-computing tag, it is possible to provide direct evidence about the popularity of the topic. There are now over 3000 repositories tagged with the topic of quantum computing, of which over 440 are also tagged with Python.

On PyPI, which does not yet have a tag for quantum computing, a search for "quantum computing" (in quotes) yields over 740 results.

Is the classifier of immediate use today?

Yes. Our own group has over a dozen projects on PyPI for which we would use Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Quantum Computing immediately when it becomes available. While I can't speak for the developers of other software for quantum computing, it seems very likely that a good fraction of those 740 projects on PyPI would also be interested in tagging their projects similarly.

[lockwo]

I support this idea. Quantum computing software (especially in Python) has grown substantially in the past decade and is supported by many major companies (such as IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc) and entire startups based on Python quantum computing software.

Perhaps comparisons could be made to other Scientific/Engineering categories Packages in terms of downloads/stars to also justify relative interest.

[di]

Makes sense, please open a PR!

[mhucka]

PR #201 opened. Should I close this issue myself, or is it the responsibility of the maintainers? (Either way is fine with me – I just want to do the right thing.)